[CAUT] Grease/Oil on upright pressure bar

[Andrew Anderson]

Jim,
This affects some 8, possibly more, upright 'Boston' pianos.  One has 
a dead bass unison.  It is in the deep bass and I'll have to check to 
see if it is lubricant related.  The bass section did seem to tune 
normally.  These pianos probably came with tight pin-blocks and 
springy pins.  That someone would try lubricating the pressure bar to 
improve that surprises me.  It definitely isn't rusty, just yields 
this oily yellow stuff and dirt when you drag a rag under it.
At first I was thinking a mis-guided "rust-proofing" effort but it is 
an upright and gravity will do its work so that could account for the 
oily strings.  I was hoping to come up with something that would not 
involve air pollution (solvents) or removing the bars.  Looks like 
that is the only solution that will really get the job done.  A heat 
gun or torch really risks pushing me towards re-stringing besides 
burnishing the plate paint or worse, burning it. :-[
I wondered at first if someone had fooled with the pressure bars but 
the position does look average for the pianos:  a couple degrees rise 
from the coils to the bar and much more (20 -30 guestimated) from the 
bar to the termination point on the plate.

I'll go back to the worst one at some point a see how its doing and 
check out that dead bass unison more carefully.  I did ask the piano 
proff. off hand if anyone had wanted to "treat" the pianos, he wasn't 
aware of any such plan.  I guess I may end up being the bearer of bad news.

Andrew



At 07:06 PM 10/7/2005, you wrote:
>There have been cases of factory "oversights", regardless of
>manufacturer. All that I'm aware of were innocent in nature. That is,
>they were attempts by the workers at doing something faster, better, or
>easier, and NOT byproducts of a design or manufacturing requirement.
>(This does _not_ include things like soaking hammer flanges in mutton
>tallow, which was a manufacturing decision).
>
>This situation, however, is a new phenomenon to me. I don't know the how
>many pianos are considered a "bunch" in Laredo, but you could consider
>removing the pressure bar for cleaning. Unfortunately, I think this is
>the least of the problem. As you indicated, the material has or -will-
>travel. It will compromise bass strings and affect sound transfer
>through the bridges.
>
>At this point, and based on your description alone, it seems unlikely
>that heat or solvents is going to do the trick. Depending on what the
>foreign material actually is, it's also possible that removing/replacing
>strings and cleaning everything in sight may not work.
>
>I feel that the condition was caused by another "PRN" rather than the
>factory. Otherwise, I can recall at least two instances of a similar
>nature. One involved "blow-by" from the kitchen in a restaurant. The
>entire piano was absolutely dead within six months. The other was ...
>something (Pledge, lemon oil?) applied by an overzealous housekeeper.
>Either of these had the same end results as you seem to be experiencing.
>
>Just my take...
>Jim Harvey
>
>-----Original Message-----
> >>> >Is this normal?  Making unisons stable is a bit of a chore.  No
> >>> >wonder they were warbling & howling.  Do they come from the factory
> >>> >this way? or did one of the past piana toonas oil everything up?
> >>>
> >>> >Over lubricated in Laredo,
> >>> >Andrew
>
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