On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net>wrote: > I recently had a call to fix annoying squeaks that were persistent in a > client's piano. I discovered that on numerous keys (not all), that one side > (left side) of the balance rail bushing was worn down. > > Before I go replacing the bushings, what would be the cause of this? Do > you run across this in this particular kind of piano? > > Thank you, > > ***TODD PIANO WORKS* > Matthew Todd, Piano Technician > (979) 248-9578 > http://www.toddpianoworks.com > Hi Todd, Many answers have already been posted saying what I will, the bushing cloth is either worn to the point of the glue penetration or it wasn't good cloth to begin with and the glue penetrated further than it should have. One indication can be the color of the cloth, is it red or does it appear to look pink or white? if it appears to be pink or white it's worn through to the glue barrier that white stripe in the center of the cloth. If you decide to rebush make certain you use a good quality cloth with the glue barrier, apply the hot hide glue sparingly and use one of the caul methods, either the ones from Pianotek or Bill Spurlock's. Years ago when Yamaha first had opened their Thomaston plant, a school district I tune for got 4 of the first pianos out of that plant, in 1986. A year later they were all chirping like a cage full of canaries, I called Yamaha and they claimed the keys had been bushed for them by Baldwin that they had used the wrong cloth. They gave me the option of rebushing them or sending them out to a company they were using for rebushing. Since we were still in the era of the spring clamps for bushing, I jumped at the option to not have to do it myself. When they arrived back I wished I had, they were sloppily done and I had to spend 3 to 4 hours on each set to make them usable. The glue had been slopped on so heavily the balance rail holes were glued shut in some cases, with diligence, an x-acto knife, tweezers and key easing pliers I managed to make them usable. When I called Yamaha about them they apologized to me! Apparantly the company, which had done great rebushing work, had changed hands just before Yamaha began sending all the bushing work their way and the new owner wasn't as quality oriented as the old one had been. They paid me for the time it took me to make them right, no questions asked. Good luck, Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090901/af8909ea/attachment.htm>
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