color of understring felt

[Carl W. Meyer]

Some years ago I followed a guy who used dyed felt to mute the fourth
string on a Bluethner treble piano section after he restrung it.  The wires
were a mass of rust. I never knew whether it was the dye or if it might
have been put in moist.  It could have been that he didn't rinse well.  I'd
be very cautious.  The only place there was rust was where it touched the
felt, so it had to be the felt.


> [Original Message]
> From: <PNOTNR@AOL.COM>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 8/14/00 7:21:23 PM
> Subject: color of understring felt
>
> List,
> 
> Just brought a Weber Grand into the shop for some work.  This instrument
was 
> recently mauled by another technician, and I'm going to be trying to undo
a 
> lot of sloppy work.
> 
> Among other things, the customer was particularly upset that the last 
> guy,"used red felt on the piano, when it originally had lovely green
felt".
> 
> Looking in the catalogs, most of what I see for use on the plate is red.  
> Anyone know where there is a choice of green?  (The closest thing I see
is 
> green backcheck cloth.)
> 
> This leads me to another question.  Does anyone have experience dying
cloth 
> and felt so that everything is the same shade?  Is it possible for one to
buy 
> white cloth and dye it whatever color they want?  And if so, is there 
> anything in available dye (like RIT dye) that could damage the music wire.
> 
> Dyeing to hear any and all comments.
> 
> Gordon Large, RPT
> Maine 



--- Carl W. Meyer, Santa Clara, Ca.
--- cmpiano@earthlink.net