Paul, I have only sold string covers to private customers, and mostly then for the "ease of cleaning" and keeping the dust out. They certainly have the added benefit of protecting the strings and helping some with tuning stability, but in dry Montana rusted strings are not a big problem. If you opt to go for commercially made covers, I have experienced difficulty in communicating with Edwards and have opted to go with *WWW.DAWSONSTRINGCOVERS.COM <http://www.dawsonstringcovers.com/>. *Their service is great, and they send you a kit with a little mini cover as a sample. As for the effects on performance, I would take the practical approach. Have someone play for you while you sit in the hall with and without the cover and decide. If there are lights directly on the piano, the cover may help with stability during the performance, but otherwise I wouldn't think taking the cover off for a performance and then putting it back on would greatly affect stability - but experience would let you know. The biggest trouble would be compliance - hard enough to keep a piano cover in place much less having the additional string cover to deal with. Good luck. Jeff Stickney Paul Milesi wrote: > Greetings. I am the new staff technician for the Howard University > Department of Music in Washington, DC. > > I am working hard to overcome or at least slow the deleterious effects > of an HVAC system that is pumping air of all extremes into recital > halls, classrooms, practice rooms, and teaching studios -- all in > combination with windows that open and close. Since the building > opened in 1961, significant damage (mostly pinblock and soundboard > damage from excessive dryness, but also string rust/corrosion from our > humid summers here in DC) has been done to what used to be some very > beautiful pianos, including several Baldwin Ls and Rs and 4 or 5 > Steinways. > > For starters, I have obtained funds for 10 Life Saver systems, to be > distributed among the recital hall, piano teaching studios, and > practice rooms. I have installed a couple already, and thought it > would also be a good idea to combine the systems with string covers to > maximize tuning stability. I purchased several yards of string cover > felt from Schaff, and placed a cover on a Yamaha C5 in the recital > hall. I currently have no plans to install undercovers. > > Can a string cover be left on the piano during recitals? The first > person to play with it on last week thought it was damping the tone. > I’m sure it is to some extent, but was thinking it’s tonal effects are > nominal, and are far outweighed by gains in tuning stability and rust > prevention. What are your thoughts on this? Is the sensatin of damped > tone anything more than psychological? If any of you use string > covers, do you leave them on for recitals? Are the Edwards covers any > different than the Schaff felt? Does anyone use them in practice > rooms, classrooms, or teaching studios? Do you meet with any > resistance from faculty or students? Do you experience significant > benefits for the trouble? Is there any advantage to a string cover on > a piano in a teaching studio that has the lid closed all the time (I’m > thinking yes, there is, because it will cover the pinblock area)? > > Also, for any who have Life Saver Systems, who has the responsibility > for maintaining them (i.e., filling humidifier)? Faculty at Howard > seem willing to pitch in, since they are already seeing significant > benefits from a little more attention to their pianos, but I’m > wondering about the long term — would it be better for me to simply > look in on 10-15 systems every couple of weeks? > > I will sincerely appreciate all suggestions and feedback on these > topics, as well as pointers to any online information, books, etc. I > really want to turn things around at this school — is that possible > without a new building? > > Sincerely, > Paul > -- > Paul Milesi > Registered Piano Technician (RPT) > Piano Technicians Guild > (202) 667-3136 > (202) 246-3136 Cell > E-mail: paul at pmpiano.com > Website: http://www.pmpiano.com > > Address: > 3000 7th Street NE, Apt. 204 > Washington, DC 20017-1402
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