my date with a certain Betsy Ross (Cyanoacrylate saves the day)

[R Barber]

Worked on a 1950's Lester Betsy Ross Spinet that should have been in 
much better shape. Every elbow had failed at some point, and been 
replaced by wooden things of all shapes and sizes, most looked hand made 
from veneers-- which are starting to fail-- and some of those have been 
replaced by the newer clear plastic elbows. Now that the plastic elbows 
are so strong, its starting to rip the center pin out of a few whippens. 
Not feeling up to lifting Ms. Ross' action out, I repaired a few 
whippens with thick CA glue, pinned and elbowed them back together. When 
I heard on the phone it was a Lester with broken notes, and the customer 
actually knew what elbows were, and all the other techs he called closed 
their schedules to his spinet, I was sweating. But in the end, the 
repair wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been *phew*.
However, not wanting to ever do repairs on that piano again, the tuning 
was done rather lightly in order to no rip open any more elbows and 
whippens. I then convinced the customer to get something in the 
non-spinet variety, and in the end he was asking advise on what to look 
for in used pianos. As I was leaving I thought their musical outlook was 
a lot more positive now.

After I left I got the sinking feeling that he's going to sell it and 
I'll end up fixing it again in someone elses' home...

Today at my floor tuning job, a customer asked a salesman "whats a 
spinet?" The salesman responded, "something no longer manufactured." 
After the customer left I said, "A spinet is a nightmare."    I guess 
that's why they don't make them anymore???