Counter-bearing drag

[Jude Reveley/Absolute Piano]

Ron:
And how will the eventual marring and tarnish affect tone? I
personally use brass because it's affordable, workable by my
methods and machine capabilities, readily available, and
exhibits a practically low coefficient of friction in contact
with music wire. Cosmetics don't concern me in this instance,
and potential tonal penalties so far remain undefined, unless
you have something to offer along these lines. IOW, until you
have a fix, is it broke?

Jude:

What concerns me is damage to the brass as a result of the string 
compression that one finds on old pianos that use this system. This includes 
brass aliquots that have even been plated. What if the string spacing needs 
to be refined?  What happens to the profile of our termination? Then again 
you see the same damage to the cast iron v-bars. Uggg! Only questions, so 
few answers. :)

Jude Reveley, RPT
Absolute Piano Restoration, LLC
Lowell, Massachusetts
(978) 323-4545