A new useful tip

[Rob & Helen Goodale]

I sent the following e-mail about 36 hours ago but for whatever reason it bounced back and did not appear on the list.  Below is the original message.


Okay, here's a new useful tip.

I have an older grand I'm fixing up to sell.  Generally it's in decent condition.  Not great, but decent.  I'll get a fair price for it and make a little room in my shop.  My general belief which has yet to be disproved is that buyers tend shop with their eyes.  Without regard of what the piano is like, if it looks terrible they don't want it.  On the other hand if you polish a turd they will buy it because it's shinny.  Just the psyche of the American shopper.

So here is a reasonable piano that has a good tone and a decent action but the bass strings are black and icky from age.  They sound okay, but they look like the underside of a dirty BBQ grill.  My usual cure for cleaning up dingy looking bass strings is a good scrubbing with a green abrasive pad.  They won't polish but they will at least become copper colored again.  In this case they really didn't.  A little hint of copper shined through but they still looked pretty bad.

So, what to do.....?  I decided to try a little experiment.

For brightening up brass parts I sometimes soak them in Ferree's Brass Dip.  This is the chemical brass cleaner that horn technicians clean up dirty old band instruments in.  It's pretty powerful stuff.  I've taken old ugly brass wheels, let them soak in a concentrated batch of brass dip for about 10 minutes, and pulled them out in amazing condition.

So on to the bass strings.  It's not possible to soak pianos strings in the piano, nor is it desirable.  Even if you could it would corrode the core wire and create a whole new series of problems.  I decided to soaked up a little brass dip in a rag.  Not ringing wet, but enough that I could wipe down the strings well without it soaking into the winding or dripping onto the sound board.  Within seconds the black color turned into a deep dark copper.   After a second application I allowed the strings to completely dry.  Next I went over the strings aggressively with the scrub pad again and before my eyes bright copper began to appear.  Although there was not enough of the dip to brighten them on their own, the wiping method was enough to get the process started so that the scrub pad could finish the job.

They DON'T look like new strings by any means, but they are considerably brighter and are now presentable.   A new solution for my bag of technical tricks!

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV

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