>From Sy Zabrocki--Billings, Montana Ken Hale replied to a message pertaining to Ice Cream Spill (Nov. 23). He said the following: For you "newbies" to our trade, glycerine is the main ingredient of the infamous liquid tuning pin "tightener" still sold by some of the supply houses, which turns pin block wood into mush and causes terminal rust to any wire it touches. Believe me, ignoring the problem is more responsible than using that stuff! With all due respect Ken, that statement is just upside down from what I have experienced in 38 years. There has been continual negative remarks about the pin block treatment for years. Some one has to brave enough (or stupid enough) to act as advocate for this procedure. Loose tuning pins is a negative condition and the treatment is an undesireable procedure but it absolutely, positively does work. I doesn't work all the time. snip Ken's statement says "the block turns to mush." How can I live with that statement when in all these years I just haven't seen it happen. How many years does it take for this mush to happen? snip snip .. Time and time again I've gotten 10 to 15 years more out of a normally good piano. If the block is still hard you can even re-string after the treatment. IFor now I'll just say I use only Garfield Restorer. It is applied with a needle spout and only a few drops applied each time over. I go through all pins four times. Only 2 to 3 ounces to a job. Don't run the stuff all over. In fact in most cases you wouldn't even know I was there. I wait three weeks before tuning. I believe is was the late Paul Cheatum who gave a PTG class on this over 20 years ago. What he taught was identical to my procedure. snip Sy Zabrocki RPT--Billings, Montana ---------- My experiences concur exactly with Mr Zabrocki's, although he does have 16 years more. I was taught how and what to use by a technician who at the time had 40 years experience. Garfields. It may be that some "off" brand of tuning pin tightner sometime or another caused dammage. Or a block had been so mushy that TPT didn't work and led to the conclusion that it caused it. If the piano is in a bar and has more drinks spilled into the tuning pins than the piano was worth new, and Garfields doesn't work, I have had luck with the APSCO brand that smells like pinesol. If the piano has a mushy pin block and isn't worth restringing, try tightner again. I have been surprised by the results, and cost less than drayage to the landfill. Richard Moody ptt
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