My turn!

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Jim, Rebushed a late 70"s S & S I think they used chewing gum to affix a
lower quality bushing cloth, what a mess. The good side is that once
rebushed it made the piano feel great.
Regards Roger  




At 11:48 AM 21/08/98 -0400, you wrote:
>I'd like a consensus from the group, if you please.
>
>Piano: Steinway 'B' circa 1975; Teflon, various other, ah, "acceleration"
>features
>
>Mission: Routine action/tone regulation; internal cleaning/cosmetics package
>
>Objective: To be completed in time for an in-home but nonetheless serious
>chamber music event featuring guest artists. (For the un-initiated, chamber
>music means they bring their own fifes and fiddles, and that the Steinway
>must pretend it's some other brand and not compete for available acoustic
>space). 
>
>Existing customer complaints: None
>
>Existing technician (that would be me) complaints: Several small things.
>Also don't like the way the action feels, but will save those sentiments
>until some routine procedures have been completed.
>
>Related other: I confess to working on much older S&S units than this, and
>frankly don't know what is 'factory' for this vintage. Customer is second
>owner, but everything looks like I'm the first to pop the hood. Since I
>started in the usual place (for me), i.e, keyframe/keys, I'll confine my
>comments to this area for now.
>
>I'm accustomed to rebushing keys as part of an action reconditioning after
>this number of years. This instrument has had very low usage, despite the
>age, and my usual indicators for rebushing just aren't there. In other
>words, everything is within specification and tolerance. That's the good
>part. The rest of the story:
>
>a. the existing bushings contain [dry] graphite only in the bushing to pin
>contact area. This "coating" is so uniform and symmetrical inside the
>mortices that it appears to be factory, but I can't imagine how (or why) it
>was done;
>
>b. I don't like graphite, wet or dry, on key bushings;
>
>c. from an aesthetics (only) standpoint, the bushings leave a lot to be
>desired.
>
>Question 1: Is the graphite a stock condition?
>Question 2: Does this vintage have unusually ugly key bushing work? It
>looks strangely familiar -- like something that would come from the
>Pratt-Read Clemson division.
>
>To bush or not to bush... that is the immediate question, at least until
>something else comes up! <g> Oh yes, almost forgot. Let's not consider
>cleaning the graphite as a viable option. I think the results would be
>worse than the existing condition. Speaking of worse, it'll be my luck that
>if I do rebush, I'll find the white thermo-nuclear activated adhesive glop
>holding the bushings in place.
>
>Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom and opinions!
>
>
>Jim Harvey, RPT
>___________________
>"Windows-95 is a 32 bit extension and graphical shell for a 16 bit
>patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit
>microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of
>competition." [Author unknown, but wish it had been me -jh-]
>
>
Roger Jolly
Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505