[pianotech] Key pins

[John Delacour]

At 13:24 -0400 28/5/10, Richard Ucci wrote:

>Brass ? Isn't nickle plated the norm?
>Found on Boston grand

NickEL plated is fine if it's nickEL-plated brass as it used to be in 
the good old days.  For many years now, in Europe at least, balance 
pins and bat pins are steel with a pretty thin plating of nickEL 
which, once it wears off exposes the steel to rust.  I'd rather have 
plain brass than that.  But I can't understand why they continue to 
produce the plated steel rubbish.  I guess wartime restrictions led 
to the change and they stuck with it unthinkingly, as with so many 
other penny-pinching things in today's pianos.

JD