Phil: "I'm going to gracefully disagree. As much as I do not like working on spinets, this particular job/repair has yielded me personally some good return on my time. I admit I do not enjoy sitting under a keybed for hrs. at a time shattering the remainders and replacing with the Acrylic elbows, but I price it to a point where the client either does all of them or call someone else. Most Lester Spinet owners I have encountered love their piano..there's some sort of sentimental value placed with them with most of these owners." First, Phil, I'm not sure why you would classify your disagreement as "graceful." I mean, certainly it's quite straightforward, but where's the gracefulness of it? Have I missed an elegant pirouetting of your words/sentences or something? :-) Seriously, I was on the spot, since the person and I had a long-standing friendship, so I was willing to go the extra mile without adequate compensation. Normally, I'd go "the whole thing needs wood parts and it will cost you not only an arm and a leg but possibly another valuable protuberance/appendage as well" route, but it wasn't really an option this time. I'd done this once before, when I was younger and more foolish, and it took me about forty minutes of straddling the bottom of the piano as I strenuously removed the old screw, positioned the wippen, and reinserted screw with short ratcheting screwdriver. That's how I did it this time, too, except it was more difficult being on the bass end. I loosened action, titled it back, ended up pulling back dampers for clearance, and then spent 30 - 40 minutes screwing with it until climactic success was achieved. One poster seemed to think I was talking about plastic elbows. That would've required about ten seconds and change, and certainly not a post to commemorate it ;-). Best, JeffO
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