cats paws on the Bass Strings

[D.L. Bullock]

Cat piss acid from the litter box on new bass strings?  The only way out of
that is new bass strings.  It will get worse and worse, I fear.  I have
found that anything dripped on bass strings makes them corrode and soon they
rattle (within a year).  Replace them and eat the loss since you will have
to sell the pianos for less money after spending more on them.  Cats and
pianos do not mix...especially MALE cats.  I could not even tune one piano
that a male had sprayed somewhere.  I am deathly allergic to that stuff.  I
began tearing and sneezing and my nose ran so I could function.

I had one customer I visited and wanted me to tune the piano and, "Oh, there
are a couple of broken strings."  I got there and the strings were caked in
rust.  There were about half the strings broken.  They had broken from the
rust.  I have seen pianos from the wet Gulf salt air in Houston, but nothing
had been as rusty as this.

I asked what caused the rust.  He said, "I was watching a guy on cable TV
who used lemon juice to clean up his copper and other metal.  I tried
rubbing all the strings with lemon juice."  As that sank in, I sat
dumbfounded.  Needless to say the lemon juice had cleaned nothing because he
could not rinse the lemon juice off or dry the strings.  He mentioned that
throughout the next couple of months they would be eating dinner and every
so often they would hear a piano string break.  It had continued for years.
Needless to say I could not tune the piano and I would not replace the
strings because the plate was also badly rusting as well.  I bought the
piano cheap and I have it stripped down for a rebuild or I may make it a
digital piano with a grand shaped box.  Luckily it was an off brand so it
will be a cheap and quick rebuild if I do it.

D.L. Bullock
www.thepianoworld.com
St. Louis