Do no harm

[Clyde Hollinger]

Phil,

I tend to agree with Ed that I think something was spilled on them.  This
reminds me of a piano I serviced several months ago.  About four years ago it
had been restrung by a rebuilder not far from here, and the owner told me her
young daughter broke a vase and some of the water went on the strings.  Some of
the wound strings had corroded to the point that the core wire broke.  I had
never seen anything like it before.  It looked like what you are describing.

It is possible that the affected strings will eventually break for you as well,
although I hope not.

Regards, Clyde Hollinger, RPT

pryan2 wrote:

> I tuned a 35 year old Steinway M yesterday that had this greenish-blue
> growth on five or six of  the agraffes. It had grown so thick that  it had
> stopped two strings from ringing.  After wiggling the muted strings, they
> broke free and began to sound again, so I tuned the piano and left, leaving
> the green stuff on the agraffes.  If I would have had my protek with me (my
> car was a block away), I would have lubricated the area. Was that a good
> idea?  Was that stuff verdigris? (I thought it only grew on action centers).
> Is this a common  occurrence?   Did I do the right thing?  Will that stuff
> clog the agraffe holes again and cause a call-back?  Not knowing what to do,
> I decided to "do no harm," get out of there, and recommend a more
> experienced tuner(maybe me, by then) if it recurs.  What should I have done?
>
> Phil Ryan
> Miami Beach