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Why a technician might want to remove a spoon from a wippen

  • 1.  Why a technician might want to remove a spoon from a wippen

    Posted 10-29-2020 16:40
    I did not chime in at the time, but I know there was an exchange in which a technician was asking about removing a spoon from a wippen; or installing a spoon.

    A lot of folks seemed baffled (if that's the word) as to why anyone would WANT to do such a thing in the first place.

    I have myself attempted to mix and match wippens on an upright that I had no spare parts for.

    Realizing that the c8-wippen was not absolutely a necessary part; I removed such and tried to use it to replace the c-4 wippen, which was very worn out.

    Sadly, my c-8 wippen did not HAVE a spoon.

    On my (and I gather on most, even grands) piano the very highest notes have no dampers. Therefore the wippens have no spoons.

    I tried to remove the spoon from the worn out c-4, but it was extremely difficult.

    Installing a new spoon in the replacement wippen also would have required drilling a hole and placing the spoon and gluing it with the possibility that the whole process would not work.

    Without spare parts, a piano tech find herself in the position of those (legendary) auto mechanics in rural locations who get a broken down car's carburetor running using bubble gum and a straw.

    h



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    Hank Mooney
    San Francisco CA
    415-640-2731
    [Hank]
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