<html> <body> At 09:17 PM 10/16/2004 -0700, David Love wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Rumor has it that the Steinway piano was originally designed that the pin would ride against the plate.  Why not just install tuning pin bushings when restringing a Steinway?  Except on some older models where the tuning pin areas are countersunk, whats the reason not to?    </blockquote> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Really?!  Does this mean the problem is in my head?  Hmm.  Well, I guess it isn't the first time.......  :-) Barbara Richmond</blockquote> Before getting too much into it, try on these old threads: Pinblock hole alignment <x-tab>        </x-tab>5/09/2001 TP bushings; was pinblock hole alignment<x-tab>        </x-tab>5/09/2001 Ditch the tuning pin bushings<x-tab>   </x-tab>5/10/2001 I haven't re-read them all recently, but the "rumor" in question can reasonably be attributed to "trouble" himself, Del F.  (See his Re: Ditch the tuning pin bushings  Sat, 12 May, 2001). I don't remember being entirely satisfied with the way the thread resolved, or maybe it was Evolved, as, at some point, it moved to a discussion of Paul Larudee's Lo torq tuning pins. I do recall the discussion, though not the conclusions, regarding the difference in direction of force on the block in the Yamaha (bushed) and Steinway (unbushed) modeling.  <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>You would have to remove material from the plate hole...I'm sure someone has done it...there goes the warranty...;-]   David Ilvedson</blockquote> Ron Overs stated, in the "Ditch..." thread that they do just that, among other things. If this contact is part of the design, wouldn't efforts to produce a product WITHOUT this condition be, at the very least, misguided? I was finding this condition in many new instruments of a particular manufacturer.  My observations were not well received.  Even if this configuration had been a part of the original design, I don't believe its more present-day manifestation was the result of intention. Lastly, I wonder, how do you (no one in particular) reconcile plate/tuning pin contact with the various efforts outlined in the recent thread "Drill bit size for #1 gauge tuning pins"  (10/4/04)? David Skolnik </body> </html>