<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Key bushing question</title></head><body> <div>Dear Colleagues,</div> <div><br></div> <div>I would like to take a minute of your time to ask if any of you have experienced the following situation regarding worn key bushings.</div> <div><br></div> <ul> <li>The keys are carefully rebushed in the customary way, using hot hide glue, Renner bushing cloth, Spurlock sizing and key bushing cauls, and are carefully fitted to the keyboard. I emphasize the word careful so as to forstall questions of quality control during the bushing process. <li>Any nicked or damaged pins are replaced with new ones. <li>The keyframe pins are cleaned, polished and lubed with McLube and the bushings are lubricated with ProLube. <li>After 6 months to a year, the key bushings, usually but not always front bushings, have deteriorated to the point of having excessive side to side motion. This usually occurs in the middle of the keyboard and is found on both naturals and sharps. <li>Upon examining the front guide pins, we discover a hard red substance on one side or the other, usually on the left (bass) side of the pin, which acts like sandpaper and gradually wears away the key bushing cloth.  I assume that this could be a combination of glue and bushing cloth dust. <li>This only occurs on about a half-dozen or so Steinways (circa 1978) with Pratt-Reed keyboards. <li>I have replaced front key pins in a few instances and the problem usually returns. <li>We use the same careful procedure on each piano keyboard we rebush, but it always seems to be the same pianos which end up with the loose bushings.</ul> <div><br></div> <div>I have one piano, a Steinway model L, on which I have to rebush keys every spring because of this problem. It gets a tremendous amount of hard playing every day, but so do all of the other pianos here, most of which don't have this problem.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Any ideas about what might be going on?</div> <div><br></div> <div>Many thanks.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Tom Seay</div> <div><br> -----------------------<br> Tom Seay<br> Piano Tech Office<br> School of Music<br> The University of Texas at Austin<br> (512) 232-2072<br> mailto:t.seay@mail.utexas.edu<br> <br> </div> </body> </html>