Cleaning smudges off of the case ?

[m1469]

How do I get these off ?  There are a lot of hand prints in particular areas of the instrument (for example, the side that a person may hold on to the piano when taking a bow).  I have an ebony, high-gloss finish and using the "dusting fluffs" alone just isn't cutting it as far as the hand smudges are concerned.

It would need to be a kind of cleanser that won't hurt the finish (windex  ), applied with a kind of fabric that won't scratch the finish. 

[daniloperusina]

From www.steinway.com:

"Cleaning the piano should be done with a cheesecloth dampened with Steinway Furniture Care Cleanse and Condition.

For New York Steinway pianos, wipe the surface only in the direction the piano was originally polished. For instruments of Hamburg production, wipe in one direction. Never use a circular motion. Do not use solvents of any kind and keep all dampness away from the keybed and strings. Placing plants, vases, pictures, or any object directly on the piano can seriously damage the finish."

the link to the full text: https://www.steinway.com/technical/lacquer_finish.shtml

By the way, they mention keeping the fallboard closed for protection of keys, but worth remembering is that ivory keys get yellow if not exposed to air and daylight, whereas plastic keys get yellow by the same! So, fallboard open for ivories, closed for plastics!

I think most pianodealers sell products for effective and safe cleaning of the case.

[m1469]

Thanks very much, daniloperusina, your post is extremely helpful to me !!    I didn't know that about plastic keys -- I was *really* good about covering my keys every night before bed when I first got the instrument, but I have become a bit lazy about it, I shall get better about it overnight !

[rachfan]

Regarding keys, I totally agree about real ivory key coverings yellowing if left for prolonged periods under a closed fallboard.  But I have not experienced plastic keys yellowing by not being covered while not in use. 

This past April I had some partial rebuilding done on my 1983 Baldwin Model L Artist Grand, which I bought new back then.  Main attention went into hammer replacement and restringing.  But as an added detail, I wanted to recover 12 or so natural keytops that had become a bit pitted over the past 24 years.  Baldwin steered us to PianoTek to buy key covers made by a German company that are identical to what Baldwin uses.  (Baldwin and Steinway keys are totally different.)  So my tech/tuner ordered a box of white and another a darker cream or aged ivory color.  Turned out the white color was an identical match to the original keys!  Once installed, the only way to tell which were new was to shine a high intensity lamp onto the keys and look very closely.  The white shade was identical, but the original key tops had very tiny scratches like a patina on their surfaces, while the new ones were smooth and flawless.  Otherwise, telling the difference was impossible.  Now, after six months of practicing the replacements likewise have that patina too, so there's absolutely no longer any way to tell them apart from the originals. 

So here's the punchline--in 24 years I've never once closed the fallboard overnight, while I'm away, or any other time.  Yet the plastic keys have not yellowed at all.  I believe the material is white plexiglass.  It may be that other piano makers use a different material for their natural keys, and perhaps there is that darkening that can become a problem--but not with Baldwin keys.  They retain their whiteness extremely well. 

[alzado]

All I can contribute here is to caution people not to put smudges on the case with inappropriate waxes or cleaners.

We bought our grand in 1988 and the dealer recommended we use a product called "Plush" to polish and clean the piano.

It appears this product had a wax in it.  While for years it seemed to do a good job, some while back the finish started to look cloudy and it became apparent there was quite a build-up of some kind of coating on the glossy finish.  Perhaps it took ten years for the build-up or coating to oxidize and become cloudy?

More recently I have used a solvent-type cleaner (no wax or coating involved) and have been using it over the last couple of years.  Every time I use it, I get quite a bit of this old wax or build-up off of the piano.  It shows up as dark smudges on the polishing cloth.  In other words . . . it is still not off yet!

However, it is starting to look like its old self again.  I suspect that a black piano with a gloss-type finish probably does not need a wax or coating of any kind.  The luster is right in the varnish.  It just has to be kept clean.