Decomposing key leads

[Geoff Sykes]

I have found that Hobart M. Cable is currently being made by America Sejung
Corp. They are located in Canada, and the piano is manufactured in either
China or Korea. The store they purchased it from pretty much ignored their
requests for repairs that were essentially just a need for initial new piano
prep, and refused to tune the piano for them after delivery. Which is why
they called me in the first place.

I think it will be quite some time before the leads actually expand and
cause difficulty. This is, after all, a "new" piano. I think my immediate
concern was the knowledge that these people have three young children and I
was concerned about the probably remote dangers of exposure to this
decomposing/oxidizing lead. Thanks to all for the feedback. I don't see any
little piles of dust yet. Just the light powdery beginnings on the ends of
the leads themselves. I think I will just watch the situation for a while
and see how it progresses before I even mention the situation to them. I
may, however, try to talk to someone at the store about the situation just
to see if warranty service will even cover this. And if so, how? Good
suggestion.

-- Geoff Sykes
-- Los Angeles




-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of annie at allthingspiano.com
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 7:35 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Decomposing key leads


Isn't the piano still under warranty?

Annie Grieshop

> I know that the subject of decomposing key leads has been brought up 
> here before, but a search of the archives brought up no results.
>
> New, 2005 or 2006 Hobart M. Cable upright, (OH-09 A).
>
> I noticed on the last tuning of this piano that all the key leads are 
> starting to get covered over with that white fluffy powder that 
> indicates decomposition. My first thought was that the owners of this 
> inexpensive piano would never go for key lead replacement. Besides, 
> it's probably too soon in the process to think in that direction. My 
> next thought was to take all the keys out and soft-wire brush the 
> powder off the ends of the leads and then seal them off with some 
> clear spray paint of some kind. Lacquer, Rust-O-Leum, AquaNet, 
> whatever. Anything to hopefully stall the process. And
> then I realized that the wiser thing to do would be to bring the subject
> up
> here first. So, any thoughts? Any suggestions?
>
> -- Geoff Sykes
> -- Los Angeles
>