Email from Yvonne Ashmore

Hello Mark,

Just saw the "elastic band pedal spring repair" so thought you might be interested in this story:

I was called out to tune a Steinway O which I have not seen since 1973. He told me one of the keys didn't work. When I pulled the action, then the wippen, I found rubber bands wrapped around the repetition lever and the body of the wippen and a rubber band which had been cut and tied between the repetition post and the jack. I thought to myself, "this looks vaguely familiar". Sure enough, when I checked my customer card from 33 years ago I had made this note: "repetition spring broken, did not have replacement, used rubber bands to get customer through that night's party, told them to call me back later to replace spring." Those rubber bands had held up for three decades! This time the wippen got a new repetition spring!!

Yvonne