speaking of Mapes

[Ron Nossaman]

I installed a set of Mapes made bass strings yesterday. I had ordered them
with a pattern consisting of two small pieces of paper, one with the hitch
and bridge pins, and one with the agraffes (an agraph, as it were), with
the speaking lengths of the first and last string on the bridge. They also
got a list of core and wrap diameters, with a request to get as close to
13mm bare end and wrap step lengths as possible.

The strings arrived C.O.D., which surprised me (and quickly, which pleased
me), with a notice that they no longer did 30 day net accounts, and
requested a credit card number for future transactions if I wanted to avoid
C.O.D. charges.

When I chipped the strings up to pitch, they came in to a real pretty and
quite adequately uniform 13mm on both ends. They CAN do it, but they
apparently want them paid for up front if you insist on eliminating their
safety margin. 

I don't know how long they have been doing this, but I thought I'd pass it
on if anyone is interested.

Ron N