WD-40

[Ted Simmons]

Stay away from WD-40!  Keep it as far away as possible from the bass
strings!  A local tuner died about 3 years ago and the rest of us have been
getting his customers since.  Bad news. All of the pianos he serviced have
dead bass strings and loose tuning pins.  I couldn't figure this out until
finally one customer told me he caught him spraying the tuning pins with
WD-40 and the customer made him stop.  He didn't know why but he just
thought that wasn't a good idea.  Then after the tuner left he went in with
a rag and cleaned the WD-40 from between the tuning pins.  But it was too
late.  He had also sprayed the bass strings but there was little the
customer could do about that.  Why he did that is beyond me. I recall a
class given by George Defebaugh years ago wherein he made the statement
that WD-40 kills bass strings but Liquid Wrench did not.  Personally, for
the past 5 years or so I've been using Protek to lubricate the bearing
points of strings.  It works for me and has no adverse affect on the bass
strings should a drop or two seep down.  A rule of thumb is to avoid WD-40
anywhere on the piano except maybe the pedals.  Keep it away from the bass
strings and the tuning pins.

   Ted Simmons