[pianotech] Plastic Flange Replacement

[Terry Farrell]

I have a client with a 1950's Estey console with plastic flanges on the damper levers that are crumbling to pieces. No plastic flanges anywhere else on piano. The piano is in good to even very good condition for its age - regulation is even pretty good. Client want to fix the piano if the cost is not too high.

I've run across crumbling plastic flanges numerous times in the past, but the client has always chosen to junk the piano rather than do the repair. However, in this case with the piano being in good shape otherwise, I think choosing to do the repair is reasonable. This would be my first plastic flange replacement job.

Looking for advice. In this particular case, most of the dampers have fallen to the bottom of the piano. There will be no definitive way to know which damper belongs to exactly which note. The damper felt is in good condtion - the few dampers that work quiet the strings nicely and do not buzz.

I suspect that after new flanges are installed on the levers and the lever assemblies installed on the rail, there will be a pretty fair bit of wire bending to be done because of the new flanges and levers being in new positions. I am further thinking that even though the damper felt is still "good", it is also 60 + years old and only if one is very lucky will any of the dampers dampen the strings very well. So I'm thinking that some wire bending (much less than if the old damper felt were to be used) and new damper felt is in order.

Or am I missing some quick & efficient way to use the original damper felt successfully and not spend a day bending damper wires?

Thanks!!!

Terry Farrell