<HTML>In a message dated 8/25/01 8:12:55 PM Central Daylight Time, imatunr@srvinet.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Hi Mike, Most likely if you examine the bushings closely, you are going to find nicotine tar contamination on the bushing felt. Protech or Goose Juice might help the stickies for a while, but most likely the problem will show up again in a few years. I would reccomend sizing the felt with water/alcohol 20/80. Then lube. Joe Goss </BLOCKQUOTE> Joe You said something very interesting here "you are going to find nicotine tar contamination on the bushing felt." I believe that if you examine the felt more closely, the nicotine is mot just ON the felt, it has actually penetrated IN the felt. As you said, just using Protec will probably not solve the problem in the long run. And I doubt that resizing the bushing with alcohol and water will even solve the problem. As I have been saying for years, all the felt in a piano that has been exposed to smoke, whether it is from a fire, or as in this case, from extreme cigarette smoke, will be corroded and infected with the nicotine or soot of the fire. I don't think there is anything short of actually washing the felt in detergent that will get rid of this stuff. Since washing the felt is not going to work, the next best thing is to replace the parts that contain the felt. In other words, the only way to permanently get rid of the problem is to replace all the action parts.   Perhaps that is a drastic measure, and perhaps in the case of the piano with cigarette smoke, it is not worth it, but that is, in my opinion, the only real solution. Willem </HTML>