[CAUT] Tired wippens

[Alan McCoy]

Paul,

Part of the answer to this is how does this piano fit into the priorities
you have for your stable of pianos. You only have so much dough. If this is
lower on the list, it won't get the wippens. You also only have so much
time. If you can get these back into "decent" shape without spending too
much of your valuable time, that might be the thing to do with this piano,
if, again, it makes sense given your priority for this piano/venue.

I would never spend the time reconditioning a set of old wippens. Too much
time spent for meager results, especially so if the wips are designed for
shanks with 15mm knuckles.

My 2c.

Alan


> From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
> Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:27:34 -0600
> To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tired wippens
> 
> Hi List,
> 
> Here's an old question from a new CAUT:  When does one finally call it
> quits on a set of wippens?  I'm working on an old Steinway M circa early
> thirties with the tilted capstans.  I would doubt that the wippens are
> original, but they are definately OLD, squeeky and has substantial amounts
> of what Steve Brady calls "gradeau" (gunk) on the rep springs at the
> rep-lever contact/rubbing points.  They also are "dented" in on the rep
> lever/knuckle contact point.
> 
> Although it is only in a practice room, we don't have ooodles o dough to
> replace the piano.  We can afford new wippens, or I can "doctor" them one
> more time by cleaning and lubing all those parts which would be a lot of
> invested time...Not much I can do about the dented rep/knuckle spot
> though....
> 
> What do y'all think?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Paul T. Williams
> Univ. of Nebraska