Many THANKS!! to Terry Barrett, RPT at Fresno for changing the subject! Though, some of 'us' may not think so after wading through the following :). Here at Wichita State, we usually use the Star Chemical ""Spray-Lac" in 'piano gold' color (as previously mentioned by our colleague at U of IL). It seems to be a pretty good all-around compromise among the miriad of OEM (thats 'original equipment manufacturers' NOT some on-line service etc ;-) colors though I would not use it on Bosendorfer or some vintages of Steinway or others with markedly different plate colors or finishes. Regarding those brown wrinkle-type finished Steinway plates, the previous incarnation of piano technician here (Marvin Rus, RPT now at Eastman) got a local paint shop to mix up a batch of lacquer which is remarkably close to the original shade. It goes on glossy and does not 'wrinkle' but is otherwise almost identical and looks great! When I spray a plate, I use spray cans just because they are more convenient and are fine for the color undercoat. Those plastic trigger handles that snap onto the spray cans help cut down on finger fatigue and make them somewhat easier to control. I usually remember to wash the plate down with lacquer thinner prior to spraying (I forgot once and had trouble with the gold lacquer lifting in some areas--not good!). The next step is to turn the plate bottom-side up and mask off the capo bar bearing area where I do not want paint (this has already been dressed, ground, filed, etc.). Then I spray all areas from the underside which I might not be able to reach adequately from above such as the round (?) cutouts along the curved side, bottoms & edges of plate struts, plate horn, capo bar bevels, and ALL other edges. Yes, this does make a difference! Then I turn the plate over and spray the topside gold. After that, any plate lettering is blacked-in or outlined depending on the particular plate. I usually use a black felt-tip marker for this and some experimentation is in order here to make sure that the result will be 'fast' under the coats of clear lacquer which will follow. Also, some of those "permanent black" inks will fade to a semi-transparent brownish hue over time and this does NOT look good. Other plate decals and/or serial numbers & letters are applied next. I like to use dry transfer lettering which is quick and easy, relatively inexpensive, and can look very good. Decals Unlimited, in addition to their other products offers dry transfer 'wire size' numbering similar to that which Steinway and others put in the tuning pin area of their plates which is immensely preferable to my free-hand renderings! When the color, lettering, etc., is all acceptable I spray the plate (topside only) with two to four coats of clear gloss lacquer which locks all the previous work down and together, evens out some of the minor surface irregularities and gives a nice 'whole and complete' effect to the finish. Gold lacquer, from the same cans used to spray the plate, is retained for brush touch-up of all the 'dings' from plate installation, stringing, etc.. THAT ... is how I refinish plates, at this point anyway...these things have a way of changing now and then. (See what you did, Terry? It must be like they say, that "the keyboard is mightier than the sword"!) :-) Thanks for LISTening, all! I had no intention of waxing quite so verbose. Its back to 'lurking' now (or should that be 'working'... I never could figure that out :-( ... oh well!) Alan Crane, RPT (esquire?) Wichita State University
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