Dull bass strings, can i clean them?? please comment!!

[Rufusw]

My piano is old, it recently had its 107th birthday, we baked a cake with 107 candles and set all the smoke alarms off, it was fun.
Anyway, i'm a student and this old antique is the instrument i have to learn with, its only cost me the price of a tune and the tuner said its worth tuning, it's a concert overture and is actually a decent quality piano..

It sounds dull towards the bass end and being a student at the moment i don't want to spend money on it if it can be avoided! Bear in mind its playable and i have had many hours of enjoyment out of it!

When i got it half the keys didn't work but i removed the action and spent many hours with silicone spray lubricating and working the action untill it came good again, if anyone else thinks of doing this i have some advise, don't do it on the kitchen floor. For 2 weeks afterwards the residual silicone spray made the kitchen lino lethal when wearing socks!! its like black ice!!! no wonder it works so well in felt bushes.....

But... i want to try and remove that dull thuddish sound from it if i can, or at least improve it slightly, anyone got any ideas / suggestions??

I'm really starting to get somewhere with my playing and i like this old piano, it has a great tone except the odd dull sounding note

Thanks for taking the time to read my post

[Barrie Heaton]

The dullness is caused by two things dirt in the copper and the copper winding coming loose.

Back in the early 80s we use to remove bass strings, boiled them in soda water for 20 mins put them back on with a few twist worked quite well on some was a wast of time on others. The other problem is strings breaking when you pull them back up.

its not a simple DIY project

Barrie,

[Rufusw]

Thanks for the reply, i remember reading somewhere about someone using some kind of pads to clean one side of the strings, they said it didn't help much but was noticeable, can't remember who or what they used though.. can't find it on google either

As far as complicated DIY is concerned thats not a problem, i am a student, but not straight from school!

I dismantled my car and rebuilt the gearbox last weekend and that worked out fine, it was making some interesting noises and i can't afford to have it fixed (Turned out to be a £15 bearing that had packed in), funny how you appreciate these things more when you have to fix them

Its just the retuning i'm not so sure about, and the strings are over 100 years old so i do think removing them and that would result in quite a few breakages, allthough i reckon removing them is the only way i'd see a good improvement if at all. in all honesty if there's nothing i can do thats not going to result in expense i'll continue on as it is for a couple of years then invest in a better piano (Providing my interest doesn't fade, really can't see that happening..)

[vernon]

If it's just the very last bass strings and they are all " tubby" then it is likely the bass bridge has either sunk or is unglued.
If it appears the former, raise the top of the bridge with a layer of veneer to improve the bearing.
If the latter, slacken the bass strings, reglue and then re-tune to apply pressure to the glue.
PLEASE NOTE
these are not professional repairs but DIY on previously hopeless cases!

[Brumtuner]

Naaaaahhhh, just unhook each tubby string from hitch pin, tie a single loop, run the loop up and down using lever or summink to release the crud, re-attach to hitch pin, retune, sorted.

[A440]

Brumtuner is right. Look carefully at the windings and give the string a couple of twists in the same direction before reattaching at the bottom.
Do not take the string right off. It will last a while, but not forever. Hexacore strings arn't too expensive and you may have fun fitting them...

[Rufusw]

Thanks for all the help, the brifge looks to be in good condition and i think its just crud, 100 years of dust is alot! I'll have a go at it before it's next tuned