Pumped up about how great all the brass hardware on his piano looked after polishing it, a client of mine went ahead and did the bass strings, too. The only acceptable remedy on this fine European boutique piano was to replace the bass strings. BIG oops! <div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div> <div>Alan Eder<br> <br> <br> -----Original Message-----<br> From: A440A@aol.com<br> To: pianotech@ptg.org<br> Sent: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 1:27 pm<br> Subject: Re: cruddy bass strings<br> <br> <div id="AOLMsgPart_0_d573a362-c9a3-40f2-bb28-d086244edc32" style="margin: 0px;font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;font-size: 12px;color: #000;background-color: #fff;"> <pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt> << A customer of mine has an old upright that the previous owner used brasso or something on the bass strings. It is encrusted between the windings. What can be used to clean these up? Is ammonia ok? >> No, it will simply waste your time and stink up the piano. You will have to either replace them, or take them loose and flex them around to loosen the crud before bringing back up to tension. Even then, it is iffy that it will help. Regards, Ed Foote RPT <a href="http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html</a> <a href="http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html" target="_blank">www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html</a> <BR><BR><BR>**************<BR>Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.<BR> (<a href="http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548)</HTML" target="_blank">http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548)</HTML</a>> </tt></pre> </div>  </div> <div class="AOLPromoFooter"> <hr style="margin-top:10px;" /> More new features than ever. Check out the new <a href="http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/text.htm?ncid=aolcmp00050000000003" target="_blank">AOL Mail</a>!<br/> </div>