Cleaning spills on bass wires?

[Susan Kline]

Dear Mike,

I honestly have never heard of any way to revive bass strings fouled by
goo or grease or whatever. I've always had to replace them.

In your case, you may be dealing with coca-cola or some such. The sugar
gums up everything, and the phosphoric acid corrodes as well, and has
probably rusted the core wire.

You are probably preparing the owners for the bad news that these strings
will have to be replaced. It would be a good time for management to 
educate the staff about what pianos will and will not stand, in the 
interests of the establishment's budget.

However, as long as those bass strings are on their way out anyway, why not
experiment on the worst ones? 

It reminds me of a little Yamaha upright in a theater pit where people
had a high old time fairly often. When I got to the treble I thought it
had a bridge separation, because the tone dropped dead. The theater 
people had asked me to get it ready for a "real fussy pianist", and I
would have to admit total defeat if I couldn't get the treble to play above
mezzo piano. The bridge appeared perfect. I finally diagnosed coca-cola
fouling the v-bar area. I borrowed a toothbrush (needed discarding after
this), a bowl of water, and a towel, and got about 3/4 of the tone back
by removing as much sticky as I could and then blotting dry. Wish I'd had
a hair dryer with me for the end, though it would make me feel like I was
working in a beauty salon.

I have no idea if scrubbing them (with water) with a towel underneath 
(blotting with a  dry rag as you go) would have any effect, but why not see?
If you use a toothbrush with an angled head you can scrub the undersides,
too, which is where the liquid will have accumulated the worst. If the spill
is anywhere near the dampers, you'll have to take them out first. Good
chance to see what might have gotten on them, too.

I wouldn't recommend half measures if it was a decent sort of 6 foot piano, 
but for a sub-baby Kimball in a bar this kind of experiment may be the best
thing you can do for the owners. You must warn them first that you cannot
guarantee that your efforts will work, either short- or long-term, and
that if they don't the strings will need to be replaced. "It's just
something I'd like to try that might save you money if it works," would be
the approach I'd take.

Yours,

Susan Kline

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(description of twisting and whipping bass strings)
<snip>
>   Will these methods help if there something more gooey than rust under
>the windings?  case in point:
>A 4ft+ Kimball grand, an 8 inch diameter liquid stain encompassing about
>14 bass wires. Eight of those wires sound noticably dead. I tried
>letting the tension down and then up on the worst one, but there was not
>the slightest improvement. Since the piano is in a drinking
>establishment, a good candidate for the substance is wine, beer, or some
>mixed drink.
>   Short of replacing the wires, does someone have a technique that
>might be tried first?  Has anyone had success or heard of anyone having
>success with cleaning sections of spilled-on-wires such as: spraying a
>solvent onto the wire, with a shallow pan or a dozen rags slid
>underneath? Any other ideas ?
>
>Mike Erickson
>
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