Cleaning bass strings

[Steve Borgstrom]

I have played electric bass for 49 years in all kindsa bands and it  
is true, boiling dirty strings can make 'em brighter and get a bit  
more life out of them. It works better on round wound electric bass  
strings than on flatwound or "ground round", so I would imagine it  
would work to some extent on piano strings. It'd be worth a try as an  
alternative to restringing , if you could just get them all back on  
without busting the beckets on too many of them.

Steve Borgstrom
Coon Rapids, MN

On Dec 6, 2005, at 12:25 PM, Gerald Forsburg wrote:

> LOL!!!  I was a bass player for years.  Never heard of this, but it
> doesn't surprise me.  We bass players are a weird bunch.  The only
> musicians that are weirder are the drummers.  Beware, some bass player
> probably told you he boiled his strings on a bet with a drummer to see
> if you'd actually do it - pianists are generally found to be pretty
> gullible. <G> ;-)
>
> Gerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
> Behalf Of John Dorr
> Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 9:48 AM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Cleaning bass strings
>
> Hi all,
>
> I read somewhere about electric bass players who boil their strings  
> when
> they
> get too grimy and they want to brighten up their tone.  I wondered if
> anyone
> had ever tried that on piano bass (wound) strings?  I've also wondered
> from
> time to time if it would be possible to clean bass strings with
> ultra-sound.
>  Anybody know?
>
> I am aware of the technique of running an overhand loop up and down a
> tubby-sounding string, and of giving the string a twist.  I'd love to
> hear
> anybody else's tips on restoring at least some of the tone to old
> strings.
>  Not all my customers can afford a re-stringing job.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
>
>
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