Greetings all; regarding Dave Smith's posting on tuning pins, blued
or plated [000520 MMD].  I am currently a restringing fool right now
and thought I would share this with the rest of you.

I am restringing a Weber Pianola (1909 art case), a Howard Manualo
(1920-ish) with blued pins as original.  The Steinway OR Duo-Art,
however, might look a little more polished with the plated pins.
Because the Weber has a 3/4 plate in it the pins are set against
hard rock maple and I think it is important here to preserve the
originality of that look, _but_ shiny nickel pins against a regilded
gold plate (to my eyes) would look much better.

In any case, however it _looks_, you can't actually _play_ the finish!
I would think that as long as any piano was properly restrung the
plating of the pins would only be an afterthought and certainly the
only the diehard purists of our trade could point this out.  In the
Weber piano, the originality of the blued pins (in my opinion) should
not change (cause really, who will look except us pianophiles) but
maybe the Steinway will get plated pins unless someone can give me a
musicality/playability not to.

To wrap it up, I think plated pins are a nice touch especially on a
good grand.  Whether or not they "last" longer or hold better is BS in
my humble opinion; please email me ASAP if I am mistaken.  Thanks all,

Eric Shoemaker