Betsy Ross pianos

[J Patrick Draine]

Ah, I've seen my share too.
Just make sure you assess what's wood, and what's plastic, before you 
make any promises to the customer.
Sometimes there's only one or two shattered plastic elbows, and the 
rest may hold on indefinitely. Sometimes you can shatter the whole 
set with normal test blows!
If breaking elbows are accompanied by (potentially) fragile plastic 
wippen flanges, jacks, damper flanges and levers, etc. you need to 
start the appointment by providing a estimate for replacing all of 
them, and then perhaps point out what percentage of the new purchase 
price of, say, a Yamaha U1, that amounts to. And the fact that a 
whole plastic damper lever might last a couple more years, or it 
might shatter 10 minutes after you walked out the door.

If replacing the elbows is all that's necessary, it's an easy job, 
the customer is usually very happy, and you've made some good money.

Patrick Draine