ORIGINAL: Tall Paul
...Hold up elevator though is an invitation to a tip-stall at liftoff.
Oh, for sure.
I was thinking only of the first part of the takeoff to help reduce the nose over tendency. As soon as the speed is up a little and you know the elevator has authourity then it should be tapered off quite quickly. I fly tail draggers exclusively (only two trike geared models in all my time) and for me it's automatic to hold full up for the run up and until the model has a bit of speed. It's usually back to neutral by a running pace unless it's an old timer in which case it's neutral by a jogging pace.