Old Erard

[John Delacour]

At 17:00 +0100 30/7/08, David Boyce wrote:

>...Three or four tuning pins are quite loose now...I'm therfore 
>thinking the three or four loose pins would be good candidates for 
>CA treatment - a "minimal interference" approach.  Do you concur?

I've heard no negative reports of the CA treatment.  I haven't tried 
it yet but I recommended it to a colleague/customer for a worn-out 
old Steinway and apparently it worked a treat.

>... What might I use to touch up and disguise the scratches on the 
>soundboard?  Would the original soundboard finish be hard white 
>varnish, or french polish?

WHV.  It will be difficult to disguise the scratches.  WHV softens 
and does funny things as soon as alcohol touches it, so you have to 
be very careful with any spirit based product such as French polish, 
and in any case this will just sink in to the scratch and make very 
little difference.  If it really matters to you, you could try an oil 
or polyurethane yacht varnish applied along the scratch with a sable 
pencil.

JD