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M A R C H 11, 1922
11
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
OurTECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM BRAID WHITE
CLEANING WOUND STRINGS
With Some Pertinent Facts About Beats in
Strings, Bluing Rusty Pins and Other Items, by
E. B. Melendy, Mt. Vernon, O.
[This is a very interesting article by a man who knows
exactly what he is talking about.
I recommend it to
every reader, having myself first read it very carefully.
—W. 15. W . |
Here are a few kinks from experience that
may help some one. I get a great deal of good
from the Technical Department. It is the first
portion read when The Review arrives.
Frequently the only thing necessary to
brighten up tarnished wound strings is to brush
them crosswise with a stiff, short-bristled fiber
brush, using pressure. In cases where mice have
invaded or verdigris has formed on the copper,
or rust on the iron-wound, or light rust from
dampness or sweating, a wire-bristled brush will
do the work nicely, if the trouble be not of too
long standing. I prefer one of the light, finer
kind of brushes—for instance, such as are sold
by some auto supply houses to use in cleaning
spark-plugs. If rust or verdigris is of such
long standing as to have eaten out pits or hol-
low places there may be faulty beats in a single
string, like two out of unison. If not too no-
ticeable it may not always be necessary to re-
place such. Rust seems to vary in different
cases. Sometimes it seems to stand still—not
increase. In others it forms rapidly and makes
lumps or knots of varying size and length which
produce bad beats, and also if cleaned off are yet
bad because of the pits left. In such cases new
strings are the only cure. In some cases rust
rapidly eats the strings until they break, neces-
sitating restringing, especially where arsenicized
felts or stringing braid have been used.
I have overhauled and rustproofed several
cases satisfactorily for special conditions—damp
locations, salty air conditions and cases where
pianos have been warmed quickly enough to
produce sweating. However, this latter is a
bad practice, and even in the other instances rust
and corrosion attack all the various springs and
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1786 Bcrteao Arenae, Chicafo
URN YOUR STRAIGHT
PIANOS INTO PLAYERS
Individual pneumatic stacks, roll
boxes, bellows, pedal actions,
expression boxes.
Manufacturers, dealers, tuners
and repair men supplied with
player actions for straight pianos.
JENKINSON PLAYER ACTION CO., Inc.
912-914 Elm St.
Cincinnati, O.
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BOSTON, MASS.
metal parts and these need attention as well as
the strings.
One thing 1 warn you against. Do not use
shellac on tuning pins. It chips off under vibra-
tion and in tuning, besides, it makes the pins
so slick (worse than smooth) that you can hardly
risk leaving the tuning hammer on the pin while
you set a wedge. After the worst of the rust
is removed by using either King's tuning pin
polisher or a wire-brush paint the pins, coils
and dead ends with some of the bluing com-
pounds sold by the supply houses—Cleveland
Blue, Royal Blue, Lion Brand Bluing, etc. If
you cannot get one of these use banana oil mixed
with some coloring, preferably blue, or maybe
brown. I have sometimes used blue Diamond
Dye for wool, it being soluble in alcohol. I
have even mixed it in the dry state with the
banana oil, or banana oil sizing, technically the
same thing you use in mixing gold bronze,
aluminum lacquer, etc. But I have never been
able to mix anything that works so nicely as the
"bluings" above mentioned and it forms a nice
soft varnish or lacquer with a soft, leathery body
that remains in place under tuning—coating in
the metal and remaining rust from the air, stop-
ping the oxidation and checking at once the
action of the rust. Be particularly careful to
run the liquid behind, beyond and beneath the
back coil of wire, coating in very thoroughly the
point where the string begins to bend in form-
ing the coil. Ninety-five per cent of the breaks
occur at this point.
In some special cases I run the liquid down
behind the bearing bar very thoroughly, in others
paint very thoroughly in the lower dead ends; in
some all of the upper dead ends, being particular
around the hitch-pins, agraffes or bearing bars.
I have even without noticeable interference with
string enunciation painted the core wire in the
vibrating portion where it extends from the
wound part to either end.
In a few special cases I have loosened up the
wound strings sufficiently to remove the loop
end, permitting me to clean thoroughly all the
plain strings, not only the face where they show.
I first clean the unseen parts by passing either a
cloth having U. S. Metal Polish thoroughly
rubbed into it underneath each separate string,
or a strip of fine emery cloth, rubbing thorough-
ly the whole underside of the string until the
cloth slips smoothly and I can pass a clean cloth
under and have it come out free from rusty
streaks. When using emery cloth I try to give
each string an equal amount of the work to
preserve equality of comparative sizes.
Where domestic conditions are expected to
HARRY F. CARLSON
IVORY AND CELLULOID PIANO KEYS
KEY REBUSHING —ALL WORK GUARANTEED
!618 SIXTH STREET
continue bad you can rustproof the vibrating
portion of the string, without cutting down a
great deal on the singing or sustaining quality
of the string, by coating with linseed oil—wipe
the whole surface of the string with a rag mois-
tened with the linseed oil. This latter, plus thor-
ough work with the Cleveland Blue, in the dead
ends, especially soaking thoroughly all string-
ing braid with it, or maybe removing same when
convenient and, after cleaning rust and bluing,
replacing the braid, makes a very thorough and
dependable job. Blue also the felt under lower
ends of strings, soaking thoroughly.
You can do all the work I have suggested, plus
the chipping and tuning, at a good profit for the
time and materials involved, if you don't dray
the instrument, in different cases at from $25 to
$35, and make lasting friends. But if you are
afraid of work and are looking only for the easy,
clean jobs don't try it.
I also mothproof an instrument once in a
while for lodge-room, church or special customer
—especially when I have repaired moth-damage
or rebuilt the instrument, and some in special
regions, like the Gulf States, also the felts in pipe-
organs. Maybe your readers would be interested
in this some time. It can be done, "no such
animal" to the contrary notwithstanding.
I should like to express my own thanks and
that of all my readers, who, I know, will join
with me in thanking Brother Melendy for his
excellent, timely and valuable contribution.
(Continued on page 12)
Before
After
REJUVENATOR
For Checked Varnish
REJUVENATOR will make checked and
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REJUVENATOR eliminates all checks and
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REJUVENATOR is easily applied and dries
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$7.00 PER GALLON
Money Back If Not Satisfied
ARTROLA PLAYER CO.
If you are doing a Player Installation Business
we can furnish Actions for Any Piano
224 N. Sheldon Street
CHICAGO, ILL.
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS
TUNERS
POLKS
Here are
TUNINO
BASS STRINGS
In it's Midy
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SUCCESSFUL
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COURTHOUSE SOJ
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Philadelphia, Pa.
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Repair Parts and Tools of
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New style all leather bridle strap
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Prices on Request
Fells and Cloths In any Quantities
Hraunsdorf's Other Specialties
Faper,
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and Cloth
Punchings, Fibre Washers
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Pianos, Organs and
Player Actions
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF, Inc., «*