Word to the wise - brittle plastic

[tune4u@earthlink.net]

Sympathize. Saw a 1947 Espey the other day ... had plastic flanges but
fortunately only on the hammer butts. Wippen flanges were wood and it's a
short action piano so no elbows. Took one of the broken flanges outside with
the customer and asked her to see if she could break it further: It crumbled
in her hand. Made a very sweet demonstration and we are going to get paid to
replace those flanges. Otherwise, I will not even tune a piano with that
crap in it, much less work on the action. Been there, done that, got the
souvenir T-shirt.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 6:08 AM
Subject: Word to the wise - brittle plastic


> Friends,
>
> Yes, I knew about the brittle plastic flanges, backchecks and jacks in
> this 1949 Gordon Laughead spinet.  I had already dealt with the thing in
> 91, 92, 95 and 97.  What possesses a normally sane person like me to be
> willing to work on this piano *again*?
>
> It's a long story, but in any case I agreed to tune and repair it, after
> clearly warning the lady that I may break additional parts in the
> process of making repairs.  She said she understood and was willing to
> pay, so I scheduled the job.
>
> When I arrived two jacks were broken, A1 and A4, and the D#5 damper
> lever wouldn't damp properly because the flange was broken.  I removed
> the action and got the two jacks replaced okay.  And I thought I should
> be able to replace the D#5 damper without causing further harm, but no
> such luck.  All I had to do was *look* at a flange and it would break.
> So I had to replace the two neighboring flanges to the left, then put
> the action back in the piano.  That's when I noticed that A4 had had not
> only a broken jack but also a broken damper flange.  Grrrr!  I wasn't
> surprised that, as I fixed that flange, the G#4 flange went, but the
> felt was crooked enough to damp well enough to not be obnoxious, so I
> quit.
>
> Oh yes, the piano was almost sitting on top of a large floor vent, which
> was spouting a high level of heat!  We talked about that, too, and I
> wrote on the invoice, "Too close to the heat to stay in tune."  The
> piano sounded terrible when I was finished but was greatly improved over
> the way it was when I arrived.
>
> I hope I have the courage never to touch this piano again.  The lady was
> satisfied, didn't get bent out of shape over the bill, and I was happy
> to be driving out of the driveway.  For the newbies out there, be sure
> to give all your disclaimers before you start on such beasties, or
> everyone is going to be mad by the time you walk out the door.
>
> Peace,
> Clyde
>
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