Lester

[Robert Goodale]

Philip Jamison wrote:
> 
> I must defend the Lester Betsey Ross spinet! John Grebe may have had some
> bad experiences, but I find these pianos to be amazingly rugged and
> dependable. True they sound like a spinet and they were cheap, but they
> are not difficult to service and really last. (I tune a lot of them,
> since I live 18 miles from where they were made... in Lester, PA).
> 

I would generally agree that these instruments seem to be built somewhat
"rugged". I have seen few Lesters in which the case was falling apart,
and I have lived in several corners of the country and seen a variety of
climatic variations. One observation that puts these instruments in the
PSO catagory, however: Almost every one that I have come across was
blessed with those horrible white plastic action components. Not only
elbows, but flanges, back-checks, damper levers, etc, etc, etc.
Furthermore, the glue that holds the action center bushing cloth often
lets go, and then bushings start "walking" out of the flanges. 

Once these actions start to fall apart, they become hopeless
basket-cases unless the whole action is retrofitted with new wood parts.
Generally they simply are not economically worth it. Of course many
other piano brands used these types of plastic actions. Just another
tragic ending for the legacy of early 1950s cheap home-piano
engineering.


Rob Goodale, RPT
Northern Arizona U. Tech