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Hi,

I am wondering if anyone have experience with Cory piano cleaning products.
(Or whatever you use)

Is cleaning, polishing, and dusting your piano even necessary?

And if I should be cleaning it, how often?

Thanks!

I have Cory products. I've used them.... once

In my defense, I've only had the piano for two years... wait, that makes it even worse!

But yes, I recommend them.

I also got this and used it to clean the brass pedals and the logo, it made a huge difference!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MUSOW4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As for how often to clean the piano, partly it's personal preference.

I personally always keep my piano lid and fallboard completely closed unless I'm playing it. I know some people keep their fallboards open and even have the lid open all the time. In those cases, I would image more cleaning would be needed for inside the piano?

Ok thanks for the response!

A cleaning once a month should be good right?

And the fallboard and lid (grand piano) would be closed when I’m not playing.

A cleaning once a month should be fine of course. Well, let me rephrase that. I wouldn't use a product on it that often. Just eyeball it and if it looks dusty, give it a gentle dusting. Use the polish maybe a few times a year??

I wonder what other people do.

Ok thanks for the tip.

Polish maybe 3 or 4 times a year?

Dust whenever it’s dusty haha

How do you treat other pieces of (fine?) furniture in your home?

I dust my piano when I do regular house cleaning, I go over the surface with a gentle vacuum brush when I am vacuuming, or with a cloth duster, but I don't "clean" the piano otherwise.

Mine is a satin finish so I don't use polish on it. If I should do so, I am sure that someone will tell me!

Regards,

Haha I don’t dust my furniture ever (none of its fine) but I occasionally wipe it down.

I do vacuum though! Everyday! I’ll definitely vacuum the piano.

I know there are satin polishes but it’s probably okay if you don’t.

Be careful cleaning the soundboard that you do not touch the strings with your hands. There are a lot of instructional videos on YouTube.

I would not use a vacuum cleaner on the exterior. Use a dry soft cloth, or a Cory product.

Sorry I didn’t mean vacuum the exterior!

ProbablyBlue - the Cory cleaning kit comes with two cloths — one marked for dusting and one for polishing. I use the dusting cloth much, much more often than the polish. I use the polish if there’s an area that got a little surface scratch… not more than a few times a year, and almost always on the music desk. But the dusting cloth is very handy and gets used once a week or so. It’s very hard to keep the polished ebony looking dust free!

Thanks for the response.

Yes I will definitely get the duster.

I bought this set from a company in Utah. Nice quality and does a great job. They have some decent cleaning videos also.

With my conservatrix gone, as some of you are aware, I shall have to knuckle down to this when I get back home. I shall probably be picking everyone's brains then.

For getting dust out of the soundboard, you can't beat a leaf blower. I just have to make sure my wife isn't around when I do it since it sends dust around the living room, but I figure it's not doing any harm to the living room since it's just redistributing dust that was already there.

As for the finish, Cory cleaner works fine. It's mostly water and is only needed to help remove fingerprints and such. If there are other issues with the gloss finish, automotive paint cleaning products work well. For example, I have a few areas that look like oil residue on my finish. Not sure what happened with the prior owner, but Cory cleaner would get rid of it, but it would always return. So the other day I got my bottle of Meguire's #9 swirl remover (which is used to buff car finishes to a shine after wetsanding) and rubbed those parts with an old t-shirt. The oil spots are now gone, and the finish is nice and glossy. I also rubbed the fallboard letters and the little brass lock thing on the stretcher bar, and that shined them right up as well. If there are any dull spots on the gloss finish, this would shine them up too.

BTW probablyblue, did you get your piano yet?

Great minds think alike, I do the same thing, including the wife mitigation strategy. I have a small battery powered one, works great and isn't so hard to handle.

I have this thing from Amazon to replace the "canned air" I used to use.

Amazon air blower

Way more powerful than a hair dryer, presumably not as over the top as a full outdoor leaf blower

Ahem.

Rigid brand 5HP shop vac, reverse the hose to blow exhaust, then tape duct tape over 1/2 to 1/3 of wand attachment to increase pressure and narrow aim.

Beats leaf blowers, hair dryers and canned air.

Haha thanks for all the responses!

I’ll do the shop vac because I already have one and don’t want to spend money on something and I don’t have a leaf blower haha.

Just make sure the hose is clean and change out to a new filter first. If your reversible shop vac is anything like mine, you don't want that stuff getting ejected into your piano