1939 Steinway wippens

[John Delacour]

At 19:24 -0500 6/11/07, Cal Munson wrote:

>I am going to be replacing the  hammers and shanks on a 1939 
>Steinway 'S' and possibly the  wippens too.  All parts are original.
>Vertigris is quite evident  in the hammer flanges  and they are very 
>stiff.   The wippens appear much less affected though I did not have 
>the time to do a thorough inspection.  I assume that these  will 
>eventually develop a vertigris problem as well and am looking for 
>some confirmation that I can pass along to my customer.

I can't understand why anyone should suggest fitting new whippens. It 
sounds to me as if you just need to re-centre or at the very most 
re-bush and re-centre, since if by "vertigris" you mean verdigris, 
then you are talking of oxidation round the centre pins that has made 
them stiff.  The cost of a set of new wippens will be very high, they 
probably won't be an exact match, and there is nothing to be gained 
by replacing them except the nice white-looking wood that will never 
be seen anyway.

JD