<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: Backcheck noise</title></head><body> <div>At 11:46 am -0500 4/8/06, Ron Nossaman wrote:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Ecsaine...also wears at least as well as leather in the piano, and isn't reactive to moisture.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Compared with "animal suede" at the Ecsaine official site, the two respects in which the two materials are identical are abrasion resistance and moisture permeability <http://www.ecsaine.com/english/about/suede/index.html>.</div> <div><br></div> <div>The checks on good quality European grands are always covered with this doeskin or elkskin, both of which are greatly superior to any generic "animal suede" or "leather".  An the checks on an 1880 Bechstein I'm working on at the moment has the original elkskin checks and looks set to go on for another 120 years without significant wear.  The silky smooth face of doeskin or elkskin combined with the downward directed nap means that it will withstand very heavy wear for a long time and be very quiet as well.  I don't know what the 'leather' mentioned in this thread is, but I'd like to see Ecsaine compared with elkskin as regards the use to which we put it in the piano.</div> <div><br></div> <div>I have never seen Ecsaine or any other substitute used by a European maker of any quality.</div> <div> </div> <div align="center"><img src="cid:p06240501c0f94fc59217@[10.0.0.1].1.0"></div> <div align="center"><br></div> <div>JD</div> <div><br></div> </body> </html>