<html> Dale I agree with you about the feel of a well executed Steinway style configuration, however, from your earlier post, in which you described converting a Yamaha to a Steinway style,  I'm not clear whether you are explicitly stating that you feel the bushing system to be inherently flawed. Can you clarify? At 12:30 PM 05/12/2001 -0700, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>   David and list         all your questions are good ones and since I started the ditch the bushings campaign allow me to interject one potent argument and or bias.    Any tuner that has ever tuned a good original 20's stwy or other well fit piano has found that they tune remarkably  well  and flaggpoling is essentially a none issue.  The pins render as better or at least as easily as any bushing fit block and the pins are not leaning against the plate(even  after all these years) because of a good tight plate flange/block fit and this is a piano system that has endured for how many years?   It seems to me that any piano that has a a good block to plate flange fit ( and 40 screws)should be able to duplicate the stable and tunable Steinway style system.     As others have said one of the advantages to bushing is a dust/liquid barrier. I like Willis Snyder's idea of some form of wood colored plastic insert for those of us who might need that for school church or bar applications.   I  addressed the issue of directional force in my first post on the subject.         Dale Erwin</blockquote> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>  Hi  Dave (David Love)  Right you are ,it is highly beneficial for the tuning pin hole to lineup with the bushing but also that the bushing be under some kind of compression as is the tuning pin in the block. Why?  glad you all asked, because the major amount of force caused by the string tension is translated from the pin thru bushing and bears against the flange thereby negating the need for much if any true pinblock to plate flange contact. Just restring any oriental piano. I got my first lesson on this replacing strings and pinblock on a few 1970's Yamahas.  Maybe there were two places that touched the flange on the whole block.     My solution was to fully fit the block with a good plate fange contact and eliminate the bushing.  The piano tunes like a dream(Bolduc block)yeah baby. Enough said?      Dale Erwin</blockquote> </html>