Jim, Well said. I think you can get flu germs from about anywhere too, but I couldn't stand the idea that Bruce might rule out the idea of using something to clean dirty keys (which he thought might be suspect and possibly able to cause him to get the swine flu), just because the Lysol "might" damage the keys. It's easy enough for a bunch of us to try it out on non-critical keytops. (I wasn't able to try it yet, because it turned out we don't have any Lysol in the house. I will get some today.) I'm glad to hear that you tried it out at BYU! One time, when we had a piano school, a doctor did tell me to be sure the keys were cleaned between each student to keep people from passing flu around. I have used alcohol on keys for years. I have found it cleans numberless other things too--like spots in my carpet, surfaces in the kitchen or bathroom. The nice thing about rubbing alcohol is that it dries fast and doesn't leave a residue. I used alcohol on the keytops of our rental fleet (about 200 pianos), which was a mishmash of used and new pianos, from 1990 to 2004 and did not have problems with damaged keys in that time span. I also used it on the keys of 25 pianos I maintained for 22 years at a local institution with no damage to the keys during that timeframe. (Maybe since we moved in 2004, all those keytops have started cracking or have disintegrated?) One caveat, rubbing alcohol can take the black off wooden sharps, so it's wise to check those first. Diane
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