Keyslips making keys stick

[paul bruesch]

I've noticed a number of keyslips that bow (crown?) and/or tilt towards the
key fronts, thus causing keys to stick down when played.

Today I visited a YC TG150 baby with this problem.  I had pulled the action
in it just over a month ago and all was well when I left that day. Today, I
could hardly get the keyslip out (or back in), the ends were binding so
tightly against the sides... much, MUCH harder than last month.

I've shimmed a couple of these out now with front rail felts which results
in a nice even gap, but I curious why I'm seeing so many of these lately. At
least 50% are on pianos that I either have not seen or at least not removed
the keyslip in the past. The one I did two days ago had a folded up business
card (current owner's mom's tuner's card from 20 years ago) already in
there.

I've only been tuning for about 3-1/2 years, and I see more pianos these
days, but the incidence seems to be picking up noticeably. Is this such a
common problem in general? I'm thinking that today's was possibly caused by
increased humidity, except I believe there was a thread recently that
mentioned that expansion isn't really an issue along the grain... and come
to think of it, I don't believe that this keyslip is "wood" anyhow.

Thoughts?
Paul Bruesch
Stillwater, MN
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