Folks, Carefully putting on my asbestos suit, I must (strongly) disagree with the practice of highly polishing keytops and/or sharps. Other than the normal complaints about tuning, voicing and regulation, too smooth a key surface is the single most common complaint I have heard from pianists in over 30 years of work. This list would include players all the way from older artists like Rubenstein (who used hair spray), Istomin (who still sands keys), and Rudolf Serkin (who mostly grumbled) through more contemporary artists like Hough (who constantly wipes the smallest bit of slick spot), to the ordinary bread-and-butter client. There is no question but that nasty, scratched-up, dirty keys are something more than a minor eyesore annoyance. On the other hand, with stage temperatures easily exceeding 80 (F), I've seen artists as otherwise sure-footed as Magaloff struggling. A limited frame of reference, perhaps, but... Best to all. Horace At 07:59 AM 7/16/97 -0700, you wrote: >Dave Sanderson wrote: >> >> Del >> I agree that high polish plastic is not that attractive, nor is it very >> traditional. Putting some texture into plastic may seem desirable but >> what I wonder about is the tendency of surface roughness to attract dirt. >> Is this a problem when we induce scratches, albeit small ones, in a >> plastic keytop? >> David Sanderson >> Littleton, MA > > > >Dave, > >That's why we buff. The first time I tried this many years ago I left >them with the sanded surface. I thought they looked less bad than their >polished counterparts. (Remember, I grew up with ivory keytops, plastic >was the interloper.) And, yes, they collected dirt fairly readily. Kind >of like a magnet. > >After developing the buffing routine, things improved. They don't seem >to. At least we've not had complaints about this. > >But, as indicated, I'm not completely happy with the proceedure, hence >my question about other's experience. > >ddf > > >
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