I had a similar situation with a lady who keeps a lot of cats in her house. The house always stank of cat urine. Anyway, a cat had urinated on the topmost treble strings at the hitch pins. Every string was broken, having been "eaten through" by the urine. I went there to appraise the job, quoted a price, and set a date to return. On the way out, the allergy symptoms were beginning rather severely, so I had to call back to decline. JF <div> On 3/31/07, Joel A. Jones <<a href="mailto:jajones2@wisc.edu">jajones2@wisc.edu</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Jim, Dale is on the mark - #1. shoot the cat  ! ! ! Then replace the bass strings and any treble strings that have been contaminated.  The reason is  the urine eats through the steel strings quickly. Ideal solution is to replace EVERYTHING. I am just finishing a Steinway that had the bass string core wire completely eaten away .  The winding held the string in.  This happened within 2 weeks while the owner was away and the cat sitter didn't notice what was happening. After removing the strings find a vet that specializes in cats for a product that masks the smell of the urine. My spray is at the shop but I think it is called 'Icky Poo'. Follow directions, and use it everywhere.  In the action under the plate, test the finish for safe use, and keep the areas wet as the label directions describes the process. I am going to guess that the owner is an older, single lady. Recently I was involved with a situation where a lady had 70 cats in her house.  There is a disease with a long name, that occurs with older, single women who take in cats.  Both her houses were condemned and razed.  She had moved to another town trying to escape the health department. We tried an experiment to save her console piano with the icky spray treatment.  The action damage was repairable, as the cats did not get inside the piano. The case was amazingly unharmed with no loose veneer.  Keys were naturally 'sticking'. After a very   extensive cleaning we thought it was OK.   She consigned the piano to a dealer, who eventually put it in the landfill.  The piano did not smell , but he found that several employees were allergic to cats and their reaction was immediate when they came near the piano. A long saga, and perhaps a bit off topic, however the short answer stands - shoot the cat otherwise the same litter box situation will reoccur. Joel Joel Jones, RPT Madison, WI On Mar 30, 2007, at 11:39 PM, Jim Johnson wrote: > I have a customer with a Kawai grand which has apparently been used > as a > litter box. I'm looking for suggestions for removing stains from the > soundboard without further damaging the strings with cleaning > liquids. I > have cleaned it using dry methods but it still looks gross. Attached > is a > photo of the problem. Any help will be greatly appreciated. You can > see the mess is you go to the following link. > > <a href="http://www.pbase.com/jhjpiano/image/76413280">http://www.pbase.com/jhjpiano/image/76413280 </a> > > > </blockquote></div>