One of the faculty, here, recently had a fire in the kitchen - a teflon-coated pan that burned for hours while he was giving a recital. The result of all of that thick, black, stinky smoke was that the entire house stunk (they had the walls washed - didn't get rid of the odor, so now their walls will be sealed using some special method) and their 1920s Steinway A stinks, too. (I'm referring to odor....) A rebuilder, hired by the insurance company, commented (in part): "I can see no effect of the so called kitchen mishap on the condition of the piano, all repairs have been necessary to make long before the time of the mishap and a mere wash down on outside surfaces would be all that is needed. All surfaces are hard surfaces except for felts, which are damaged by other causes and worn out. There is no odor evident and residue includes mostly, if not all, pre-existing build up of other household contaminates." [sic] I agree with the rebuilder that the piano was in need of rebuilding before the pan burned up (what he refers to as "the so called kitchen mishap"), but having seen the instrument myself, I found the odor to be *quite* strong (that smoke odor is hard to miss -- but then, I'm not a smoker, so my olfactory senses are fairly acute). What perplexes me is this "wash down" concept and the idea that wood is a "hard surface." Granted, the lacquered portions are hard, but the soundboard (which has the original shellac finish), all of the action parts, keysticks, keyframe and bed, beams, etc. - anything that doesn't have a lacquer finish - surely could be considered a "hard surface!" Am I off base? How does one "wash down" a piano without using liquids? I can't imagine that the minimal amount of water/cleaner solution we use to clean soundboards is going to be equally effective on every other wood surface. I wonder what this rebuilder considers "outside surfaces" to be and which ones he would suggest should be "washed" and which ones shouldn't. All of the wippens have outside surfaces - would those surfaces *not* be washed down? What about damper heads? Underlevers and underlever tray? Wash down keysticks? Can someone shed some light on this stuff? Suddenly, I feel ignorant. Ron Torrella, RPT Piano Technician "And like that...he's gone." University of Michigan - Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey) School of Music The Usual Suspects 734/764-6207 (office/shop) 734/763-5097 (fax) 734/572-7663 (home)
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