Verdigris

[Norm Barrett]

Hi Eugenia

I was hoping the my post would generate some discussion. I attended a class on
teflon bushings by Fred Dresche some years ago. He was definitely pro teflon and
spoke of converting his own vertical to teflon bushings. According to him, the
demise of the teflon bushings was the lack of training of the technicians in the
field. Felt bushings swell as the humidity goes up and shrink as the humidity
goes down. Teflon bushings do exactly the opposite acording to Fred. He felt
that this phenomenon was not understood therefore most technicians had trouble
servicing these pianos because it is opposite of what they were used to.

As I see it, the biggest advantage of converting to teflon bushings instead of
replacing parts would be cost of the parts. Renner charges $300 for a set of
shanks and flanges and Schaff has telfon bushings for $30 a hundred. This does
not take into account the hammers. It does seem to me that you could do this job
cheaper that replacing all parts however I have never done it and probably only
would if the cost of parts replacement was out of the question.

Norm Barrett
Memphis, TN

Eugenia Carter wrote:

> Norm,
>
> It sounds like a possible solution. After all teflon bushings did work for
> the purpose of not binding the center pin. However, wouldn't you still have
> the same environmental reason not to use them, i.e. humidity changes
> swelling the wood around them? Seems I recall this is one of the reasons
> Steinway stopped using teflon bushings themselves. (Another reason is that
> technicians all over complained so much that they yielded to that pressure,
> is that correct List?)
>
>