smelly piano

[Diane Hofstetter]

Not an easy question John,

  First thing is to check the ptg archives, it likely has come up before.

  Cigarette smoke is pervasive and awful.  The first thing I would do is 
vacuum the entire piano, then wash the case down completely.  Try some 
cleaner that would not damage whatever finish is on the piano.  The orange 
citrus cleaners are often good, Ace Hardware has a super cleaner/degreaser 
under its own brand name, and Corey sells a wonderful coconut cleaner but I 
would try anything you are thinking of using on a small hidden area of the 
case first.  You will likely want to polish it after it is cleaned. Be sure 
to thoroughly clean the back too.

  (Here's your chance to demonstrate how well Corey products work and maybe 
even sell some to your customer.  Clean the piano with coconut cleaner and 
polish it with Allbrite.)

  Next clean the keytops.  Alcohol works well on most surfaces (except some 
painted sharps).

  If possible have the piano out of her home while doing this work, even if 
that means to just move it onto her front porch or whatever.  This gives the 
piano and the house a chance to air out.  Possibly when it is moved back in 
she won't notice the smell anymore.

  If she does, you need to move on to stage 2: cleaning the interior.  It 
depends a lot on what you see and smell. If it's dirty and smells bad, 
remove the keys and action, vacuum, use a parts brush and paint brush to 
loosen up hardened material.  Blow the action out with either a vacuum in 
reverse or compressor.  I can't begin to tell you everything I do to clean 
out the interior of a piano.  Each one is different and different materials 
work on different pianos.  Hunt the discount stores, hardware stores, 
grocery stores, etc. for cleaners and brushes that look like good candidates 
for a piano.

  If you have access to a bead blaster, you might clean the action and keys 
with that.  A 3M company rust removal pad is actually a great wood cleaner 
(ie.on the tops of keysticks).

  When you finally have the piano CLEAN, if there still is cigarette odor, 
you can put it into an ozone chamber. I use a small bathroom in the shop 
with a couple of air cleaners that generate ozone.

I generally find that with cigarette smoke the case cleaning alone solves 
the problem.

  Good luck!
  the "piano putzfrau" of Santa Cruz county,
  Diane


>From: "John & Ruby" <harrell@intrex.net>
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Subject: smelly piano
>Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 01:01:10 -0500
>
>Dear list-
>     While my efforts are usually focused at improving the sound or touch 
>of a piano, a new client has thrown me a curveball.  In addition to the 
>sound, her recently acquired piano also smells bad - like cigarette smoke 
>to be exact.  Does anyone know how to remove smoke stink from a piano?  
>Please help.
>
>John Harrell
>Associate Member
>Research Triangle Park Chapter, NC


Diane Hofstetter
245-M Mount Hermon Rd.
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
ph  831-438-6222
fax 831-430-9741
dianepianotuner@hotmail.com

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