<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Consider yourself lucky, on some of = them the entire backcheck itself is plastic... or at least used to be.  Never seen = one but I've heard of some with the wippens and/or damper heads made = entirely from plastic.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rob Goodale, RPT</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Las Vegas, NV</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT = size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2> <HR> </FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>> Liszt, = <BR>><BR>> If you ever find yourself unfortunate enough to be tuning a winter spinet circa = 1940s, do not, repeat, DO NOT attempt to move the > backchecks even = slightly.  The whippens are mounted on plastic flanges, and they are now of = an age that renders them quite</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>> brittle.   <BR>><BR>> I was tuning one of these little beasts yesterday, and = I attempted to regulate one of the backchecks, thereby snapping the</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>> whippen flange. =  Pulled the action out, replaced flange, put action back in, resumed tuning, and = immediately found another</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>> broken = flange...guess where I'm going this morning? <BR>><BR>> Oh yeah, the damper flanges are = also made of the same yellowing plastic.  The hammerflanges, thank = goodness, are made of</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>> wood! = <BR>><BR>> Just offering you all fair warning. <BR>><BR>> Dave Stahl <BR></DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>