Dead bass strings

[Sarah Fox]

Hi,

Since nobody has a definite answer, I'll speculate here.

Surely everyone here is familiar with that sticky goop that forms on the
inside of a car windshield over time -- especially in hot climates.  How
does it get there?  There are lots of organic substances in your car that
are mildly volatile -- oils in the leather, vinyl, and/or plastics;
treatments that you might put on your seats or dashboard, etc.  When your
car gets hot, these substances evaporate (e.g. "new car smell") and condense
on cooler surfaces like your windshield.

Now, if this same sort of gummy condensation can form on the bass strings
(and especially if dirt mixes in with the gum), THAT could kill them.  This
could be the scenario with WD-40 fumes, spray furniture wax, Liquid Gold,
anything "good" for the finished wood, in fact even the wood itself!  This
might or might not be aggrivated by temperature fluctuations from a Dampp
Chaser unit -- depending on whether some oil/wax-laden parts would get
warmer than the strings.  Oddly enough, the self-tuning piano would benefit
from relative immunity to this oil condensation problem.

>From the inorganic end of things, I agree with Thump that the ammonia fumes
from latex paint *could* rust the strings somewhat.  Did they do a lot of
painting?

Chlorofluorocarbons wouldn't react with iron or copper and would dissipate
very quickly, so they are not a likely source of any problems.  In fact CFCs
are the favorite way to clean precision machinery in the military.  (The
military is currently the biggest CFC outlaw.)

Hope the speculations help.

Peace,
Sarah

PS  I think Gordon''s nickname (Thump) is kinda cute. <smile>

----- Original Message -----
From: "ted simmons" <ted@yourlink.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: Dead bass strings


> The piano is a Kawai UST-7 console.  I have had experience with certain
> fumes contaminating bass strings.  The most well-known is WD-40, which
> definitely kills bass strings.  I had an occasion where a customer used a
> spray wax on his piano and the bass strings went dead.  The wax wasn't
> sprayed on the strings, just on the case.  Yet the strings died.  Had to
be
> fumes causing that.
>
> Ted Simmons
>
> > From: G GRAVINA <ggravina@ix.netcom.com>
> > Reply-To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 05:43:15 -0500
> > To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > Subject: Re: Dead bass strings
> >
> > Ted,
> >
> > What kind of piano?  I'd look more towards a rolled bass bridge rather
than
> > chemical contamination from paint fumes.
> >
> > Jerry Gravina, RPT
> > Babylon, NY
> >
> >
> > At 11:18 PM 12/19/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> >> I've been tuning the 5 pianos in this particular church every 6 months
for
> >> the last ten years.  Today I found the piano in the gym has suddenly
come up
> >> with dead bass strings.  I reported it to the officials and discovered
that
> >> the room the piano was in (a large gym) had been painted since my last
> >> visit.  I explained how dangerous certain chemical fumes are to piano
bass
> >> strings but couldn't give them a list of which products to avoid.  Does
> >> anyone have such a list?
> >>
> >> Ted Simmons
> >> Merritt Island, Florida
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
> _______________________________________________
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