Clean piano

[Farrell]

I use the Spurlock Soundboard Tools (all three of them) with great sucess. But I find that they get most of the big stuff, but don't clean a dirty board (the kind that has not been cleaned for 80 years) as good as it can get. For the really dirty ones, or those that have had stuff spilled on them, I find that I need to run a damp soft cloth under the strings - but then on the really nasty boards I use the Spurlock tools to push the damp rag back and forth scrubbing the nastiest areas. I will sometimes run two or three clean damp rags in succession to get all the dirt. Also the only way I have found to do the area on the rear side of the bridge is a rag and a soundboard steel - just be careful with that soundboard scratching tool (don't ask how I know!).

I would agree that the Spurlock tools alone (or with a vacuum) will do an excellent job on a dusty 10-year old board (the kind of board where the dust has not become part of the board). Also, I usually keep the vacuum running while using these tools - every time I pull one out from the strings I vacuum off whatever crud is sticking to it.

One other thing I have found to be of very good use is the Soundboard Straw available from Burger King or wherever (they are not as thin as some straws). I keep a few of them in my cleaning bag. When using the Spurlock tools on a dirty board, sometimes the dirt piles up and seems to be of a granular form - the Spurlock tools will not pick it up - its almost like soft sand. When I get a pile of that stuff going, I insert the straw part way into the vacuum hose, hold it there with my fingers, blocking off the rest of the opening with my hand/fingers, and insert the straw between strings, directing its end to the crud pile and suck it up. It picks up most anything, is soft and goes through just about any opening and does not scratch anything. You would not want to use this trick to vacuum a large area by any means, but to get that small pile that you will only otherwise try to scoot across the whole board and leave half of it behind, it works great!
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Goodale" <rrg@unlv.edu>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 1:12 AM
Subject: Re: Clean piano


> You absolutely MUST get the Spurlock sound board cleaning brush/rake 
> thingies, (not really sure what to call it, sort of a squeegee for piano 
> dirt).  Once you use these tools you will never use anything else.  I 
> have thoroughly cleaned a dirty board in ten minutes with these.   If 
> you are not familiar with this tool see it here:
> 
> http://www.spurlocktools.com/id32.htm
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT
> Las Vegas, NV
> 
> 
> HazenBannister@cs.com wrote:
> 
> > Hi list,
> >  I was at a church today for a cleaning,and tuning on a small grand.I 
> > used a yard stick to clean the soundboard,under the strings.It worked 
> > a lot better than a soundboard steel.It is flexible,but stiffer,so you 
> > can push a cloth easier,and a much thicker one.It is also very soft 
> > wood,so there's no chance of scratching the wood.You can also insert 
> > it at the treble string break and cover the whole board.Push the cloth 
> > to the top of the treble,and with the action out,you can remove the 
> > cloth with your hand.
> > Hazen Bannister
> 
> 
>