[pianotech] bushing cloth wear, (was Best Bushing)

[erwinspiano at aol.com]

? Thanks Shawn
? Good to know. The only complaint so far is on a D that the bushing are on the no clearance side. Only on firm blows does the sticky-ness feel expose it self.
?I will add some Teflon & hope for a bit more play in time to smooth things out.
? Dale


Dale and all,

?

while?leather is a good option for keybushings just keep in mind to put the correct side of the leather facing?the keypin.? I went on a call where leather was used for the bushing job by another technician and the lady kept complaining of sticking keys.? You know how that is, anything could be a sticking key (bad unison, touch is funny bla bla bla.)? This was a teacher though and she would know if the keys were sticking.? I was the third technician who had went out to try to solve the problem.? The original technician thought that I might look at things a little differently because of my lack of sight...? Sure enough I found the problem...? I expected keys that wouldn't repeat quickly or hammers that were sluggish and made the key return slowly.? It was nothing like that!? After pounding/banging and demonstrating every blow a pianist could ever use I was about to give up.? I decided to finely look outside the box and that's when I found it.? Depressing the key gently and slightly pushing to one side I could make some keys hang on return.? The keys would hang for just?an instant when they were about 1/8 of an inch from rest.? I could feel the friction between the keypin and bushing just slightly...? So all and all it was the visual that was bothering her, not the feel. or "sticking".? A little investigation showed me that the leather was wrong side out.??I polished?the keypins and put some Teflon powder in the mortises and that did the trick.? The other technician was willing to pay for another bushing job if necessary but we thankfully haven't come to that yet.? So far the extra polishing and tun of Teflon has worked and we are going on 1 year after the fact.? It was a good lesson for me though because I had never used leather up to that point.? Now I use it for pianos that are used and abused on a regular bases.? All and all it probably amounts to about a quarter of my bushing jobs.? I still don't like the feel of leather like I do the cloth but no one has complained about it.? So...? That's what I know on the 

subject, not much but something I guess.? 

?

Regards,

Shawn Brock, RPT 


----- Original Message ----- 

From: erwinspiano at aol.com 

To: pianotech at ptg.org 

Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 10:08 AM

Subject: Re: [pianotech] bushing cloth wear, (was Best Bushing)



Hi Ed
? Join the club
? We have been greatly frustrated by this but it hasn't been just the recent past. Trix has done fastidious bushing jobs for years. We pre-size the mortises after the old felt comes out to stabilize it & we have on many sets sized them with alcohol and water to make a perfect & tight fit with as little play as we can get by with & yet we find bushings blown out as fast as?Indy race car tire. Keys literally clacking against each other. I thought it may just be churches & those players using lots of glissando players, but not so.
?So we are in the process of switching to using leather in the front mortise of high use applications despite the maintenance issues you site. I have seen leather key busing's 100 years old that fit perfectly & aren't noisy. 
? SO to the collective wisdom here I ask ...what's the answer? 
? After all a key mortise is only going to tolerate so much diddling with before it becomes out of spec & requiring serious & expensive repair or replacement.
? Dale Erwin


From: A440A at aol.com

Subject: [pianotech] bushing cloth wear, (was Best Bushing)



Greetings, 

<<  We want a very firm, yet resilient 

surface against the keypin, not a hard unforgiving one.  We're going for 

adhesion here, and not much "penetration" into the cloth is necessary. >>

    I agree. And I wonder what is going on with the cloth, these days.  I 
rebushed 6 grands 18 months ago with the BU series of cloth from PianoTek. I 
took 
care to use as little glue as possible, and all of them required just a 
little easing when first installed, and I left the keys with as little free play 
as 
possible.  They were totally worn out, with keys hitting keys, within the 
year!  Front rails worse than balance. 
     I have never had wear that fast with the older, two color cloth that 
Steinway used to sell.  This new version seems softer and spongier, too.  Half 
of 
these pianos were lubed with Teflon powder, the other with McLube. The pins 
were all polished, too. None of it made any difference, they are all totally 
shot.  
   These pianos are in a very high use application, but I have been gettting 
4 years out of keybushing with the Steinway and/or Fletcher-Newman "boxcloth" 
supplies I used for many years.  Anybody else have these problems?  I didn't 
iron the felt, but then again, I never have before, and the other cloth 
certainly performed better.  
Regards,   



Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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