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<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">I started tuning in 1972, part time while working another job full time. I did about 10 tunings per week because I was the tuner for 2 piano stores. Anyhow, an elderly tuner died and I and other tuners were getting calls from his customers. On every visit I found the piano in deplorable condition in that all of the tuning pins were loose and the bass strings were thunky. I’m talking about Steinway and Chickering grands, as well as all other kinds of uprights and grands. I had no idea why this was happening until one day I went to tune a piano at a retirement club. When I found the same problem I mentioned this situation to the club president and he said that he was present when the elderly tuner started tuning the piano. Much to his chagrin he noticed that the tuner was spraying WD-40 over the V-bars and bass string stagger pins. He tried to stop him but it was too late. What I found was that the piano (an upright) had loose tuning pins and thunky bass strings. When I pulled up on one tuning pin and released the tuning hammer the hammer moved back, having no friction at all. My lesson from this is to stay away from using </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica">WD-40 on pianos. From past messages on this listserver I found that others have had the same experience. I don’t even keep WD-40 in my car anymore.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></div><div><div>On Feb 17, 2008, at 3:14 PM, David Boyce wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"David,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">You misunderstood my comment.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Brush the schmutz off the v-bar-pin where the new string will occupy. NOT</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the entire set.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best wishes,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tom Driscoll"</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ahh, sorry Tom!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I did in fact clean off the two bits with a rough cloth before fitting the two new strings.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But my concern was less for the new string then for the old ones, and the idea of the WD40 "spot lubrication" applied to all the bass strings at the V-bar was to try and help prevent any more of the old ones breaking.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">David.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </blockquote></div><br></body></html>