[CAUT] Protecting pianos from student and faculty beverage spills

[David Ilvedson]

Has anyone slid a piece of masonite over the tuning pins/damper/hammers?   If it had a towel like material attached it might soak up liquid spills.   Grands of course...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Israel Stein" <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 12/2/2009 3:30:12 PM
Subject: [CAUT] Protecting pianos from student and faculty beverage spills


>Wed, 2 Dec 2009 11:11:13 -0800 "Newhouse,Larry R." <lrn at SFCM.EDU> wrote: 

>>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I have not been subscribed to CAUT for many years and I apologize in advance
>> if this question has already been discussed to exhaustion.  We have more
>> than 100 pianos with approximately 88 practice rooms, classrooms and
>> studios.  While I have had placards placed on a wall of each room stating no
>> food of beverages allowed and discuss this at the beginning of each semester
>> we invariably have a few spills a year on average.  I haven't found away to
>> search for past threads on the subject.  If that is possible I would welcome
>> some direction.
>>   
>Larry,

>Here at San Francisco State it has also been a big problem. Last month 
>we had the latest spill  - it required rebushing the keys on one of our 
>practice room Yamaha P-22's.  In the past we had strings, dampers and 
>hammers on a Yamaha C-7 ruined by hot chocolate, and strings on a 
>Baldwin F damaged by some sort of sticky goo. The Director, who is very 
>protective of the pianos (he's a violinist - so go figure...) basically 
>hit the ceiling and decreed a policy of total prohibition of any food or 
>drinks in the practice rooms or anywhere near pianos elsewhere. The only 
>exception - water bottle, on the floor. There is a student lounge 
>designated for eating and drinking...  He decreed rather severe 
>penalties for violations (loss of practice room privileges for a week 
>and/or automatic failure of a required course for the semester) - and 
>posted signs all over the building announcing it all. This is far beyond 
>anything that I or the other technician would have recommended - but 
>apparently he lost patience. So far the harshest penalty has not been 
>invoked, but we regularly kick people out of practice rooms for any 
>violations and suggest that they thank us for not reporting them to the 
>department office - which would result in course failure. It certainly 
>has drawn attention to the problem...  We'll see what happens in the 
>long term. I do have to say that the majority of students are quite 
>understanding and cooperative. Faculty is a different story...

>Israel Stein