Hi List, Doing some action repair on a customer's old 1950's Sohmer spinet. Not only are the sticker elbows made of that old dried out, crumbly plastic, but so are the hammer butt and damper flanges! But here's the weird part; the flanges seem to be just fine, and show no apparent signs of decomposition. I removed a few samples and checked their stability and applied the same (even more) pressure that easily turned the elbows into powder, and they held up just fine! They appear to be made of the EXACT same plastic, so i'm wondering HOW the elbows have all but disintegrated, but the flanges are, seemingly, just fine. Could it be that because the flages, being somewhat less exposed than the elbows, have somehow been preserved? Anyway, I just found this quite curious. PS: I recently tuned a German Studio piano Import known as "Herman Schaaf", with the action made in Berlin. The customer says it's from the 40's, but I could not find a serial number anywhere except on the action, which does not correspond with the Atlas. Anyway, I have NEVER tuned a piano with tuning pins configured in such a strange, NON-Tech friendly way. The tuning pins are set in the block in such a way with the plate recessed inward slanting upward, so it's almost impossible to get a tuning hammer on the pin in the usual 12 O'clock or thereabouts manner, unless you have a 30 degree, long tip and extend your shaft ALL the way put! Solution? I did my very FIRST left-handed tuning, using the mammer in the 9 O'clock position and "pushing" the pin upward! In addition, the piano was grossly flat ranging between 100-180C flat! But hey, it was a challenge, I learned from the experience, and not one broken string! Terry Peterson _________________________________________________________________ Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp
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