CAUT

  • 1.  Yellowing naturals

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-01-2021 08:25
    Hi, all. 

    Certainly this has been discussed ad nauseum, but something is still eluding me.

    1969 Steinway grand recently donated to the School of Music has some keys that are darker
    (more yellow) than others. I have cleaned them with H2O2 and with glass cleaner and now
    have had them under UV lights for several days but nothing seems to be making any difference. 

    The keys are whatever synthetic material they were using at the time. Why are these so stubborn?

    I don't have the time to sand an re-buff the set of keys. I was hoping for a global fix that could
    be done without too much labor time on my part. I was hoping that would happen if I left them
    under the UV lights while working on other things. 

    Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

    Dave

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    Dave Conte

    University of Tennessee
    Knoxville TN
    817-307-5656
    Owner: Rocky Top Piano
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  • 2.  RE: Yellowing naturals

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-01-2021 08:34
    While peroxide and UV light can help bleach ivory, your assumption this technique will work on plastic keytops is false. Either learn to love the yellow, or sand & buff, or replace those 52 year old tops!

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    Patrick Draine
    Billerica MA
    978-663-9690
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  • 3.  RE: Yellowing naturals

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 11-13-2021 22:57
    The tops are probably ABS styrene. UV light will damage them.

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    Edward McMorrow
    Edmonds WA
    425-299-3431
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