Manually pre-compressing a panel... was Soundboard drydown for installation

[Richard Brekne]

    Terry writes:

    Perhaps unrelated, but none-the-less interesting and perhaps unknown to
    many, is how much and how easily one can reduce the cross-grain
    dimension of
    a thin spruce panel when clamping. I've never measured it, but I would
    estimate that one could reduce the width of a meter-wide panel by 5
    to 10 mm
    with only finger torquing on a few clamps. Spruce is very spongy
    that way.

This is another point that bugs me.  Since the inevitable compression 
set of the soundboard panel will come sooner or later... and since 
compressed wood is somewhat stiffer then uncompressed wood in the 
direction of compression... why hasn't anyone tried pre-compressing a 
panel so as to push it way past its compression limits... essentially 
taking future compression set out of the picture entirely... and then 
build a RC&S assembly with the thing ?

I'm sure there is a very good reason why not to... but I haven't a clue 
as to what it would be. 

Cheers
RicB