cleaning

[Warren Fisher]

Rob Stuart-Vail wrote:
> 
> Warren, I'm not talking about smoke-damaged pianos....just the ones we tune
> every day and hope the client won't ask us about cleaning them.

Rob, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were off on a tangent there!

I'm like Wim, I'll do, whatever they wish, free for the first 15 minutes
of non-tuning time then go on hourly charges.  If it's really a mess, I
schedule a second appointment and start out with my minimum service fee.
I also used the customers vacuum for many years, but recently started
carrying a "dirt-devil" hand vac and a small shop-vac in my van.  I
decided this after I visited 5-6 customers that:

1. Had only rug vacuums with no hose or attachments.

2. Had lost their crevice or radiator attachment which is crucial for
getting into those tight areas around a piano.

3. Used a cleaning service that brought in their own equipment and
didn't have a vacuum at all!

If I use my vac I charge ten minutes for going to the truck to get it.

The problem with trying to ignore dust, is that some customers are
paranoid about it.  Some are very allergic and once they see all that
grey stuff, they will run and get their vac and start using it between
your legs!  (that actually happenedto me!)  If you are off-hand about
the situation, the customer may lose their faith in you and go looking
for a tuner that *will* dust!  (what kind of tuner can he be if he
doesn't hate dust!)  What a revoltin' development that would be!

One nice thing about the small shop-vac is that if you wrap some cloth
around the wheels, you can set it right on top of the strings of a grand
and easily vacuum the whole top area without moving it all around the
floor.  I usually put it in the bridge area first, clean the pins and
dampers and then switch.

Under the strings, I use Spulock's set of soundboard tools to stir up
the dust while using the vac crevice tool right above. The crevice tool
pulls stronger than the other attachments.  I use a stiff paint brush in
the webbing area and a stiff 1/2 inch artist brush down through the
strings in the bass overstrung area to clean the top of the tenor bridge
and the bass bridge apron.  If the strings are too close together use
two big fat mutes to hold them apart. (clean first then tune, obviously)

Hope this helps,

Warren
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Warren D. Fisher
fish@communique.net
Registered Piano Technician
Piano Technicians Guild
New Orleans Chapter 701