>My further query is why would iron, not steel, >wound strings sound very good at first but change to losing their tone. Is >it because of tarnish that would settle in on soft iron very quickly or >some other reason? >thanks, >James Grebe Dear list, The ostensible causes of tone deterioration on iron wound strings as well as many low-tech restorative procedures have been discussed by resourceful technicians for years. I, together with Innoclean Technologies of Winnipeg, have been experimenting with ultrasound cleaning of these 'tubby' sounding iron wound strings over the past two years, with encouraging results. The process involves placing the entire set of strings (removed from the piano, of course, and threaded on leaders at the hitch pin and coil ends) in a water bath surrounded by ultrasound transducers, zapping them for a few minutes, then drying overnight in a special low-heat oven. I got the idea from an electronics technician whose company uses this process to clean dirty electronic gear (they will actually immerse an entire VCR in the tank, which cleans all the PC boards, connectors, etc, but leaves the tape transport mechanism grease track untouched). Each set of tubby, iron wound strings we have cleaned in this manner has improved significantly (difficult to quantify this improvement in written form though) at a fraction of the cost of new custom-wound strings. We now offer this service to our clients as a means of bringing good value to an older instrument that may not be worth the higher cost of replacement parts. Best regards to all from the blizzard bound Canadian prairie, Stan Kroeker Registered Piano Technician Kroeker & Sons Piano Experts 59 Quiring Winnipeg, Manitoba R2G 1Y5 Ph. 204-669-5881
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC