Whether you have an upright piano or a grand piano, pianos often have brass parts that become weathered or tarnished due to age, temperature and humidity changes and/or pet urine. Some of these brass parts include brass plated piano hinges and screws, solid brass piano casters, brass piano pedals and pedal rods, brass piano leg ferrules, brass piano knobs and more...
While either in our El Dorado Hills Piano Storage and Piano Repair shop or during one of our Piano Moves in the Sacramento area, we often see that the brass on the pedals, pedal rods and the casters (piano wheels) have become tarnished over the years. Unfortunately, this tarnish on your piano's brass parts, not only looks unsightly, but the tarnish will also begin to make some of these parts seize up, preventing movement and adding undesirable squeaking noises, especially in the pedals.
As a part of our piano refurbishing service, we offer complete restoration of these parts and they are often in better shape and will stay cleaner longer after we finish our process, than when the piano was first built. We are often able to get the brass parts on the piano smoother than when the piano was first built, which creates an environment that is less likely to allow tarnish to build up in the future. One of the processes we use is bead blasting, which is a process of cleaning with very fine pieces of glass through a high pressure system. Once the bead blasting of the piano parts are complete, we will then go through a process of cleaning and lubrication with compressed air and a dry teflon lubricant.
If your brass piano parts are well tarnished, we suggest using our cleaning service first and then maintaining the cleanliness with a product like Brasso. Or, if the brass parts of your piano have a minimal amount of tarnish, try cleaning up the brass on your own piano, with "brasso" or "flitz" and a soft cloth. You could either remove the pieces and clean them or clean them in place. While cleaning in place, be careful not to allow any of the cleaning compound to touch the adjacent parts of the piano, as it may leave an undesirable residue. For example, if you are cleaning the brass piano pedals, it is easy to get the cleaning compound on the felt around the pedal housing. We suggest either using painters tape, paper or cardboard to mask off the areas around the pedals, for the neatest result.
If you are planning to have your piano moved or use our piano storage service, this is a great time to have us clean your entire piano, including the brass parts. The cost of having us restore the piano's brass parts is much more cost effective than having all these parts replaced.
Give us a call to get a quote on brass restoration or even a complete piano refinishing and repair: 916-397-7426
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