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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What can you say about comparing and =
contrasting
bone and ivory (color, grain, feel, durability, etc.)? I've heard that =
bone is
more porous and gets dirtier more easily. Please educate =
us!</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I apply keytops =
for a living
and there are several factors to consider when choosing a top. The =
quality of
the keytop, quality of the piano, quality of the rebuild, =
preference of
the customer, knowledge and preference of the technician and
budget. Crappy "molded" keytops are nice if applied properly,
and three thousand dollars worth of new ivory is "crappy" if not =
applied
properly. Molded keytops have the advantage of being inexpensive, =
uniform in
shape and appearance, and relatively easy to apply with minimal skill, =
tooling
and yields fair results. A disadvantage is that many people feel =
that
they are a cheap top and as a result do not use them. Other materials =
ivory,
bone and the variety of plastics are usually in a slab or oversize =
form and
require more skill, tooling and money. In addition when you go from a =
molded
keytop with fronts attached to a keytop without a front attached you =
double
your workload. Vagias is a simulated ivory top made of plastic and =
I've
found that people either like it or don't there is no in between. =
Ivorine
(pyralin) is still around and preferred to acrylics because of the =
plastics
available it feels similar to ivory. New ivory and bone are available =
and
preferred by most but are costly and not always in the
budget.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>