Worked on a 1950's Lester Betsy Ross Spinet that should have been in much better shape. Every elbow had failed at some point, and been replaced by wooden things of all shapes and sizes, most looked hand made from veneers-- which are starting to fail-- and some of those have been replaced by the newer clear plastic elbows. Now that the plastic elbows are so strong, its starting to rip the center pin out of a few whippens. Not feeling up to lifting Ms. Ross' action out, I repaired a few whippens with thick CA glue, pinned and elbowed them back together. When I heard on the phone it was a Lester with broken notes, and the customer actually knew what elbows were, and all the other techs he called closed their schedules to his spinet, I was sweating. But in the end, the repair wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been *phew*. However, not wanting to ever do repairs on that piano again, the tuning was done rather lightly in order to no rip open any more elbows and whippens. I then convinced the customer to get something in the non-spinet variety, and in the end he was asking advise on what to look for in used pianos. As I was leaving I thought their musical outlook was a lot more positive now. After I left I got the sinking feeling that he's going to sell it and I'll end up fixing it again in someone elses' home... Today at my floor tuning job, a customer asked a salesman "whats a spinet?" The salesman responded, "something no longer manufactured." After the customer left I said, "A spinet is a nightmare." I guess that's why they don't make them anymore???
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