Greg, Bad not good.String breakage during tuning will almost always occur at the tuning pin so oiling strings will do nothing put give dirt something to latch on to and create a yucky mess -- and ANY lube on a tuning pin could migrate to the block. Big no on that one ! Protek is my lube of choice on pressure ,V and Capo bars and agraffes. I keep away from bass string windings with the stuff but some time ago one of our colleagues mentioned an experiment in applying protek directly to the windings to improve tone. I don't remember where that thread went . Anyone ? I think it was suggested by one of our European friends. My opinions here : Oil = bad . Graphite in any form = bad . Protek, Goose Juice ,V.J lube , teflon powder ,McLube and maybe some others that escape me =Good Hope to see you at the next meeting @ M and H. Best wishes, Tom Driscoll ----- Original Message ----- From: Greg Livingston To: Pianotech list Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 11:17 PM Subject: [pianotech] Wiping Rusty Strings with Oil Dear Friends, Today I tuned a 1920's grand with really rusty strings. Not wanting to add to my troubles, I put a dab of 3 in 1 Oil at each becket and on either side of every agraffe with a Q tip. The piano was very sharp, and I break far fewer strings lowering the pitch compared to raising the pitch. Do you do this? I read once that you should put Liquid Wrench with a pipe cleaner at every becket, but I did that once and the whole house stunk for hours. Ergo, the Three In One. Also, for really rusted strings in a grand, have you ever wiped all the strings with an oily rag, just to reduce the chances of a broken string? It seems like a good idea but I await the judgement of my colleagues. Thanks, Greg Livingston ___________________________________________________ Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service 781-237-9178 Piano Technicians Guild, associate member (Boston chapter) Website- http://greglivingston.weebly.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100927/3d0a9e92/attachment.htm>
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