Zeno I don't think the bushings are water proof, per se, but the coke, or whatever spilled on the plate, was probably cleaned up right after it spilled, so that not enough of it penetrated through the bushings to cause any real harm. Unless you think they will break, before replacing the strings, try cleaning the area with a cotton swab. Someone once suggested to spraying Scrubbing Bubbles in the tuning pin area, and then immediately cleaning the area up with cheese cloth, using a small screw driver to get under and between the strings. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician 94-505 Kealakaa Str. Mililani, Oahu, HI 96789 808-349-2943 www.Bleespiano.com Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Zeno Wood <zeno.wood at gmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 1:11 pm Subject: [pianotech] waterproof plate bushings Just wanted to get a couple of opinions: A nice Kawai RX-2, about 14-15 years old, which must have done something really bad in a past life, because now it's been condemned to a high school auditorium. A few years back someone spilled some sort of sugary drink all over the tuning pin area, and I've been asked to do something about it. The interesting thing is that it's not in bad shape all things considering. There's a sticky mess all over the plate in the tuning pin area. The strings are not rusty except for some tuning pin coils. The agraffes look pretty nasty, but again, the strings don't show any rust. The tuning pins feel ok, and the bottom of the pinblock is clean. It seems like the plate bushings prevented the spill from going straight into the pinblock. (are they using waterproof plate bushings?) Also, the action is fine. How long would it take for pinblock contamination to manifest? It's been 3-4 years since the spill. Seems like all that's needed is a cleaning, and replacing a bunch of strings. -Zeno Wood, NYC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091119/65f66310/attachment.htm>
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