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We offer an inexpensive sound board cleaning steel.
You look down into the grand piano, and yuk, it is full of crud, right? This comes from time and the first law of dust-- It falls forever. How do you clean it out?
You can order a cleaning steel from my Mini-Catalogue at the end of the book or from your tuner. If you get the cleaning steel, cover the eyelet end with electrician"s tape by threading a long piece tediously through the eyelet over and over until you cover ALL the end metal. This is so that you will not scratch the wood of the sound board.
If you are too cheap to order the cleaning steel, I am going to show you just how much I love you. I am going to help you anyway. Find some item from you shop which is like this-- It must be strong but flexible. It must be able to be formed into an eyelet at one end. It must be able to be covered so that you don't scratch the sound board. Now, go dig in your junk pile. Something will turn up, maybe even a black widow.
Now, get some Liquid Gold from the hardware store. I don't know any good substitute. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PUT WAX ON THE SOUND BOARD. Next, get some rags and rip them into strips.
Thread a strip of rag through the eyelet you made in your tool, and spray it liberally with Liquid Gold. Next, push it right through the wires so that you can rub the end with the rag in it around on the sound board. Do this BEFORE you tune the piano since this work may dislodge wires and set some notes out of tune.
Go to work. Change the rag frequently, and make sure the rag is tight so that you don't lose it under there. I like to wad it up and tie a knot in it to keep it in the eyelet. Get under the metal plate or harp, and clean through any holes in the harp.
Cosmetics is not your only concern. Large quantities of dirt can slightly quiet a sound board. While you are at it, run the steel all around under the harp to see if any pencils or toy soldiers have gotten under there. They can cause buzzes.
If the sound board has a big fancy decal on it, be very careful as you dust it. You don't want to scratch it. It may not even show at first if the sound board is real dirty.
If you think about it, you can use that steel to get the whole sound board clean. Some maneuvers will be tricky, but it can be done. After you do the sound board of the grand, go do under the kitchen cupboards and under the bed. What fun!
On to task 57.
