<div>Being a suspicious kind of a guy my question would be why? If with a little care and forethought you could do your stringing without contaminating the wire, why go to the extra trouble(cost) of the Protek. </div> <div> </div> <div>Plus and here's where my suspicious nature kicks in, what is the long term effect of the Protek on the wire? The Hammers? How soon we forget Steinway's brilliant idea to use sheep tallow to ease in center pins, and what a roaring success that was! Now I don't know that Protek would or could  cause any problems, again my only question is if you are doing a job that has an expected life of 25 to 35 years, why risk it? I know, I'm hoplessly old fashioned but I just don't see the need for speed or brevity in something like this. We're talking perhaps an extra hour? The Protek has to cost that much! </div> <div> </div> <div>I also use the Mapes IG wire my assumption is that the people who made it knew what they were doing, that's their business and they've been doing it for many years. To handle it w/bare hands and then wipe it down with a chemical lubricant just strikes me as not what the manufacturer intended.  <br><br> </div> <div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/8/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Ron Nossaman</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:rnossaman@cox.net" target="_blank">rnossaman@cox.net</a>> wrote: </span> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><br>> In the plain wire section I wipe down the strings with a rag dipped in<br>> Protek after each group of unisons, especially the area under the <br>> dampers.  With Roslau wire it cleans the strings of residue and also<br>> seems to prevent corrosion from forming (at least for awhile) which<br>> helps keep the trichords from swishing (trimming them properly helps <br>> that too).<br><br>The two primary reasons for me switching to Mapes IG wire is<br>the higher breaking strength, and it's cleanliness. It doesn't<br>leave my hands coated in black grease, and I don't have to <br>clean the strings after installation. It's actually cheaper<br>too, though that wasn't a considered factor in switching.<br>.<br>Ron N<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Michael Magness<br>Magness Piano Service <br>608-786-4404<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.ifixpianos.com/" target="_blank">www.IFixPianos.com</a><br>email <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:mike@ifixpianos.com" target="_blank"> mike@ifixpianos.com</a>