rusted piano strings

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

They get difficult to finely render especially in the mid treble 
where the finest rendering is needed for solid unisons and the 
tension isn't high enough to hang off of the pins.  I have a church 
S&S M that you can't move the strings at C4 in smaller then 5 cent 
increments.  Lot of jockeying back and forth there and when it hits, 
leave it alone!
They're raising money for a rebuild.

Andrew Anderson

At 02:17 PM 2/19/2008, you wrote:
>In all this discussion, no-one has mentioned the rusty strings being a cause
>of bad sound in the piano. I'm often amazed that pianos with really bad
>looking strings don't sound worse. Is this true, or am I deceiving myself?
>
>Scott Jackson
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 2:23 AM
>Subject: Re: rusted piano strings
>
>
> > The life of the strings will be maximized by leaving the rust on. The
> > formation of rust on the exterior of metal provides some insulation
>against
> > the migration of oxygen to the unrusted metal. Removing the rust will only
> > expose the bare metal to the environment more and promote more rapid
> > oxidation.