<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Hi Norman,      I had a smoke damaged Baldwin with the same problem.  In that case, cleaning them with a loop of wire, twisting them, even taking them out and whacking them around didn't do much.  It seems as much work as replacing them, except for retuning the bass a couple of times.   New strings aren't that expensive.  The insurance company would probably rather replace them and be done with it, than have have the claim reappear in a year or two if the strings corrode. Pulling old coil stressed bass strings back to pitch always gives me the willies.  Wouldn't want one shooting into that new triple pane window behind the piano. -Mike Norman Barrett wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> Hello list, I have a question. A grand piano about 5 years old has dead bass strings. The customer had a fire in her kitchen and said there was smoke damage that she cleaned up. She did not have insurance. It was late in the day but I took 2 of the worst offenders loose, ran a loop of the wire up and down the string and put a half twist in it and pulled it back to tension. This revived these 2 strings nicely.The sound board is quite dusty but I see no soot. The action is also quite clean with no evidence of smoke soot. The worst I can see is some rust on the treble strings. My question is wether looping and twisting the strings is a long term fix or should the strings be replaced. What are your thoughts? Norman BarrettMemphis, TN</blockquote> </body> </html>