Litter box soundboard

[John Formsma]

I had a similar situation with a lady who keeps a lot of cats in her house.
The house always stank of cat urine. Anyway, a cat had urinated on the
topmost treble strings at the hitch pins. Every string was broken, having
been "eaten through" by the urine.

I went there to appraise the job, quoted a price, and set a date to return.
On the way out, the allergy symptoms were beginning rather severely, so I
had to call back to decline.

JF

On 3/31/07, Joel A. Jones <jajones2 at wisc.edu> wrote:
>
> Jim,
>
> Dale is on the mark - #1. shoot the cat  ! ! !
> Then replace the bass strings and any treble
> strings that have been contaminated.  The reason
> is  the urine eats through the steel strings quickly.
> Ideal solution is to replace EVERYTHING.
>
> I am just finishing a Steinway that had the bass
> string core wire completely eaten away .  The winding
> held the string in.  This happened within 2 weeks while
> the owner was away and the cat sitter didn't notice
> what was happening.
>
> After removing the strings find a vet that specializes
> in cats for a product that masks the smell of the urine.
> My spray is at the shop but I think it is called 'Icky Poo'.
> Follow directions, and use it everywhere.  In the action
> under the plate, test the finish for safe use, and keep
> the areas wet as the label directions describes the
> process.
>
> I am going to guess that the owner is an older, single lady.
> Recently I was involved with a situation where a
> lady had 70 cats in her house.  There is a disease
> with a long name, that occurs with older, single women
> who take in cats.  Both her houses were condemned and
> razed.  She had moved to another town trying to escape
> the health department.
>
> We tried an experiment to save her console
> piano with the icky spray treatment.  The action damage was
> repairable, as the cats did not get inside the piano.
> The case was amazingly unharmed with no loose
> veneer.  Keys were naturally 'sticking'. After a very
>   extensive cleaning we thought it was OK.   She
> consigned the piano to a dealer, who eventually
> put it in the landfill.  The piano did not smell , but
> he found that several employees were allergic to cats
> and their reaction was immediate when they came
> near the piano.
>
> A long saga, and perhaps a bit off topic, however
> the short answer stands - shoot the cat otherwise
> the same litter box situation will reoccur.
>
> Joel
> Joel Jones, RPT
> Madison, WI
> On Mar 30, 2007, at 11:39 PM, Jim Johnson wrote:
>
> > I have a customer with a Kawai grand which has apparently been used
> > as a
> > litter box. I'm looking for suggestions for removing stains from the
> > soundboard without further damaging the strings with cleaning
> > liquids. I
> > have cleaned it using dry methods but it still looks gross. Attached
> > is a
> > photo of the problem. Any help will be greatly appreciated. You can
> > see the mess is you go to the following link.
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/jhjpiano/image/76413280
> >
> >
> >
>
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