March 1st came with decent temperatures (mid-50's), so I pulled the
valve chest with its finger pneumatics out of Seabreeze's Verbeeck 165.
After seven years of operation, from mid-May to mid-September, seven days
a week each year, about one-third of the keys show obvious leaks, the
thin (rubber) pneumatic cloth being seriously torn at the front end.
That tells me that all the finger pneumatics need re-covering.

My impression is that the pneumatics should have lasted a little longer
than seven years.  But be that as it may, that is not my question to
you.  My question is, would I be smarter to order new thin pneumatic
cloth from PPCo or use some cloth that I have had lying in the basement
for about 15 or 20 years?  Would the old cloth, in spite of its age, be
likely to last longer than any cloth I'd get today, or should I order a
new batch?

Matthew Caulfield (Irondequoit, N.Y.)