Mike Masters posted: > Just a thought. We know that the Protek does wonders on first contact >and will work well for a while, but is not permanent. If you are in a >situation where the wippen is tight and it must be removed for access to >lube up. Why not rebush or replace. I could see doing Protek for a quick >and temporary fix. You would spend 5 minutes doing a rail. But if you're >going to spend the time in takeing the wippen assembly off the rail, or >at least every other one, why not just do it so it will be permanent? Mike, List, Every piano is different, and therefore each one has to be evaluated individually as to its needs. Likewise, the owner of the piano has their individual expectations about performance level for their instrument. Some situations just don't require a full blown replacement, and some do. Some like their instruments just the way they are except for the sluggishness. Another way to make this real easy is from a numbers perspective. Customer owns a Steinway grand that had a verdigris problem. I say, "We can go at this from two different angles. One option: we can try this new age lubricant and attempt to free up the problem for say xxx amount of dollars. If this suits your purposes, then we're home free. Should the sluggishness reappear later on down the road, we can reapply the Protek for xx amount of dollars." The other option: "We can just replace all the parts for x,xxx amount of dollars and be done with with the verdigris sluggishness once and for all. One thing, thought I must mention, replacement of parts will change the entire familiarity of your piano, both in touch and in tone. There have been several times when I have advised customers not to have me work on their piano unless they are completely unsatisfied with it. Mainly because I will change it forever from the way they know it, and I will never be able to return it to the way they remember it was. There's so much more in determining what to do with someone's piano with verdigris than I have communicated in this post. Hope some of this helps your question Keith A. McGavern kam544@ionet.net Registered Piano Technician Oklahoma Chapter 731 Piano Technicians Guild USA
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