Gulbransen spinet whippen needed

[Ron Nossaman]

> The other day I tuned an old Gulbransen spinet (ca. 1950) which had a broken
> whippen in the tenor section.  The whippen itself is broken, not the flange.
> The Schaff catalog has the kind I need on page 102, item 3768, but when I
> called they said they were all out, and would not be getting any more (due
> to lack of demand, I suppose).

It's not lack of demand. It's lack of supply. Baldwin sold off 
the facilities (Pratwin) for making these obsolete action 
parts to try to cover debt incurred by cumulative incompetence 
and compound stupidity in management - then they suddenly and 
inexplicably went bankrupt. Ain't nobody making these parts 
any more, nor any potential source for same in the foreseeable 
future. It seems that no one still in business is falling over 
one another to produce action parts for which there is almost 
no demand. Go figure??? It's a mystery. Guy Nichols warned us 
that this was imminent, and it seems to have arrived as per... 
It will only get worse as remaining stock is consumed without 
options for replacement, so get used to it. It's the new reality.

Ron N