Lubricating V-bar

[Ted Simmons]

I started tuning in 1972, part time while working another job full  
time.  I did about 10 tunings per week because I was the tuner for 2  
piano stores.  Anyhow, an elderly tuner died and I and other tuners  
were getting calls from his customers.  On every visit I found the  
piano in deplorable condition in that all of the tuning pins were  
loose and the bass strings were thunky.  I’m talking about Steinway  
and Chickering grands, as well as all other kinds of uprights and  
grands.  I had no idea why this was happening until one day I went to  
tune a piano at a retirement club.  When I  found the same problem I  
mentioned this situation to the club president and he said that he  
was present when the elderly tuner started tuning the piano.  Much to  
his chagrin he noticed that the tuner was spraying WD-40 over the V- 
bars and bass string stagger pins.  He tried to stop him but it was  
too late.  What I found was that the piano (an upright) had loose  
tuning pins and thunky bass strings.  When I pulled up on one tuning  
pin and released the tuning hammer the hammer moved back, having no  
friction at all.  My lesson from this is to stay away from using
WD-40 on pianos.  From past messages on this listserver I found that  
others have had the same experience.  I don’t even keep WD-40 in my  
car anymore.

On Feb 17, 2008, at 3:14 PM, David Boyce wrote:

> "David,
> You misunderstood my comment.
> Brush the schmutz off the v-bar-pin where the new string will  
> occupy. NOT
> the entire set.
> Best wishes,
> Tom Driscoll"
>
> Ahh, sorry Tom!  I did in fact clean off the two bits with a rough  
> cloth before fitting the two new strings.  But my concern was less  
> for the new string then for the old ones, and the idea of the WD40  
> "spot lubrication" applied to all the bass strings at the V-bar was  
> to try and help prevent any more of the old ones breaking.
>
> Best,
>
> David.
>
>
>

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