<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3354" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Fred~</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thank you so much for taking the time to communicate that excellent information. You addressed a lot of my bewilderment about tuning pins.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>The aesthetics vs salesmanship issue is a very pertinent one here, I agree. Thanks for reminding me of those two necessary qualities of any marketed product!</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tuning pins must be sold, and "sell" and "show" are those two factors that salesmen must rely on. (Then the technician must deal with the implications or consequences of those "marketing" and "appearance" qualities, built into the tuning pins).</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>The analogy with bushing cloth was a very good one. Who knows if Steinway embraced the white bushing cloth because of green standards, or because it helps differentiate their product, (or both)? Often products, it seems, have to an additional quality besides the "appearance" and "marketability" ones: "uniqueness," or "newness", to help differentiate one product from all the others on the market.  </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>I notice Brooks/Abel now has a new "natural felt" hammer, that is apparently being quite well received, but which arose partially out of an effort to stop using acids in the cleaning of felt, which caused environmental pollution; now they're substituting enzymes instead. "Natural" felt implies felt as it "should be", or felt as it was decades ago (the "newness" of old forms which had been abandoned for "improved forms.") The hammers are not "white" but more a "natural" color.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>I wonder if the new Steinway keybushing felt is similar. Is it "white" now, or "natural"?</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Think about all the products from the piano supply houses, like self-adhesive nameboard felt, "jiffy" leads, plastic key bushing inserts, universal bass strings, (and don't forget teflon bushings!) that were supposed to be the latest and greatest solution to our problems. (And don't get me going about "universal replacement parts", that are supposed to fit everything but end up fitting nothing well.) Yeah, they seemed like a great idea at the time, and they were "new" and supposedly "improved," and (supposedly) finally addressed a problem that we were all having; but because of their relative newness, they hadn't passed the test of time.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>Were the new parts any better? (Well, they could charge more for them.)</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>You raised an excellent question: are tuning pins so basic that there is not much to be tampered with, and the basic variations (blued, or plated, or a combination of both, threads cut before or after plating, or bluing) are simply time tested differences necessary for different climates or applications; or do the tuning pins we use today have those sneaky "built-in improvements", used at one time to sell either more pins or more pianos, that maybe we should be looking at in the same way we now view self-adhesive nameboard felt.?</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>(How many here still use self-adhesive nameboard felt? Hmmm?)</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>So. Why DO front rail punchings have to be green? ;-) </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=688080920-08072008><FONT face=Arial size=2>~Kendall Ross Bean</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV align=left> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=533361603-16112007>PianoFinders</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=533361603-16112007><A title=http://www.pianofinders.com href="http://www.pianofinders.com/">www.pianofinders.com</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=533361603-16112007>e-mail: <A title=mailto:kenbean@pianofinders.com href="mailto:kenbean@pianofinders.com">kenbean@pianofinders.com</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=533361603-16112007></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=533361603-16112007><EM>Connecting Pianos and People</EM></SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>