Cleaning Instruments, pianos, string instruments Options

[pianochic]

Hi, waht's the best way to clean your piano? I recently got a new yamaha..it is gorgeous, but it gets dirty with fingerprints and dusty very easily. I hate seeing the fingerprints over it...mostly on the lid, where i have to open and close it. But it just seems that i never get it as clean as i would like it to be.

on the other hand...my violin...it is almost 200 years old...i've been told never to use any polish that is claimed to be for stringed instruments, and to send it to a violin repair shop...problem is, i didn't buy my violin in my country, and there aren't any violin repair shops here. What is the simplest way to clean it? I had a venezuelan 'mentor' who used to use lighter fluid to clean his, but i never experimented with it. My pegs are made of ivory, and unfortunately, because i have sweaty palms, they're no longer white/cream, but have turned to this sort of...tainted white/yellow looking colour. It doesn't look bad..it sort of adds character to my instrument...but is there any way to clean that, or is that totally irrepairable?

i'm afraid to do anything or use anything on my instrument that with 'harm' it, so to speak. Because as you all know, a musician's instrument is his/her pride and joy.

[deborah_L_watson]

Hiya

I normally clean my piano with a shammy leather, put a very small amount of water on it and then rub over the piano. It brings it up lovely andshiny and repels dust for a short while aswell!

Deborah

[Tess]

We have only ever used cotton or Kleenex for the violin on a daily basis and washing up liquid for the hair on the bow. Our baby soiled the bowhair with some baby oil! Thank God the teacher knew how to get rid of that!!!

However, you may be interested to know that Menuhin said to use cotton for the body, and to polish use "Hill's" polish but only rarely and very sparingly and for fingerboard and strings, he said to use purified benzine followed by alcohol, or with eau-de-cologne.

Finally, why not ask your teacher? I'm sure he knows the most practical alternatives.

Hope that helps. :)

[pianochic]

Thanks for your help you guys. I will try the different methods and let you know how they turn out.

Jiselle/pianochic