Funny, I just got back from putting an ozone generator under a grand, then wrapping it with plastic for a local dealer. HOWEVER the first step is a thorough cleaning. It's a huge job, since smoke gets everywhere. The shop worker, who has cleaned many, many used pianos for the store, has done his usual, pretty thorough job. But there is a list of at least a dozen places he has missed: the damper guide rail, under the damper guide rail, the bridges (it's just smeared around), the action cavity walls, bulkhead, keybed, damper lever action, tops of posts under piano, the lyre and its felts, leathers, the pedals etc, etc. The bass strings sound tubby--and it's not the age of the piano. The damperlever action and the piano action both need to be glass bead blasted, then thoroughly vacuumed to get all the beads out. It is the only way I know to clean everything out of the action parts. I have done this successfully to a number of pianos. One was a rental piano which came back from the rental customer, reeking of cigarette smoke. It smelled just fine after thorough cleaning and ozone treatment. Another was a Yamaha console which had been in a fire. The yamaha had been cleaned by a fire restoration service and the customer complained that it still caused her respiratory problems. The insurance company sold it to us and we cleaned it and had it in our rental fleet for ten years. It always smelled fine and we sold it a year ago. The experience with the lady who owned the Yamaha made it clear to me that part of the problem may just be whether the owner really WANTs the piano--or, in her case, the insurance money. I'd suggest that you double, or even triple your usual cleaning fees (you'll be busy!), then add on the costs of putting the ozone generatorand tenting it. Another person with a lot of experience in smoke damage in pianos is Jim Schmitt of the Portland, OR chapter. You might contact him. Diane Hofstetter Hi list. A customer has asked me if 20 years of tobacco odor can be removed from her husband's recently inherited grand piano. The piano already has a loose pin block so if this job costs more than $1,000 dollars she's going to talk to her husband about getting rid of this piano which has a special meaning to him. I thought of an Ozone generator inside the piano and wrapping the piano in plastic but I'm not going to do a thing until I hear from those who have expertise with this sort of problem. I'd appreciate any ideas. ThanksGeorge Tyson -------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL: Diane Hofstetter
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