<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>I wonder how many technicians do what I sometimes do when a spinet hammer shank is broken off at the butt. I take a long drill bit and drill out the butt, slowly and carefully, while it's still in the piano. This saves </DIV> <DIV>me the aggravating job of removing the butt and having to replace it, which can be a near impossible job in some pianos. I do this especially on those "grand lyre" type spinets of the 1940's and 1950's that are always a pain in the neck to work on. And I also wonder how many technicians treat a warped grand key slip the following way - I thought of a more permanent cure than shimming the middle of the key slip with action felt or cardboard punchings. Simply plug up the screw hole or holes on the bottom of the key slip closest to the middle of the piano (the average key slip has 3 or 4 equally spaced holds which receive the long screws that hold it to the piano), and re-drill the holes about 1/4 of an inch closer to the keys. In this way, the screws, when forced into the newly drilled holes, will bend the key slip outward, towards the player, thus alleviating the problem.</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>