At 08:57 +0800 6/6/10, Bruce Browning - The Piano Tuner wrote: >John, >Is there any reason that the upright uses leather faced spurs and felt >faced backchecks instead of a similar arrangement to grand pianos, with >leather backcheck on wood.? Just convenience and cost, I guess. I have seen old grand pianos with pretty shaped tails covered in buckskin falling against heavy buckskin or elkskin checks. Erard and others with the forked shank used elkskin on the hammer and a nickeled brass check. Both require considerable extra expense. I have an upright from 1880 with the stop blocks covered in buckskin and the check heads in 1/4" elkskin -- durable to be sure, but at a high price. Buckskin against hard felt checks is effective and pretty durable if the checks are bent at the right angle. Unfortunately this is often not the case, so the buckskin wears out at the bottom and the felt is eroded. The upright hammer has no tendency to jump out of check, so attention is too often not paid to this detail. JD
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