Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Loose ivory cap

I should point out that when an ivory tail gets loose, it usually gets loose at the front, while sticking at the back, due to the way it was originally clamped. The center of the tail will bulge up. You cannot just put CA glue on it and have it hold the bulge to the wood, as in this case, the ivory has swollen and become longer. Repairing tails like that is very tricky, and should be left to someone with experience.

I may have to "cheat" on my piano tech and call another one. Maybe she'll never know!

Another temporary repair you could try is to use a piece of scotch tape over top of the ivory and down the sides of the key lever.

When you attach tape to the sides with a flat butter knife make sure you push down on the ivory to take up the slack…..

On a vintage concert grand with pristine ivory I would advocate to have the repair completed in the proper fashion.

Morodiene, please take Dan's and Gadzar's advice and don't try to do this yourself! The risks are just too great.

Surely if your tech is out of town for a month, she could not mind your calling another tech in an emergency. And I am sure she would prefer that to hearing that you had tried to do it yourself.

You could try leaving a voice message on your techs phone explaining your problem and then ask if she has anyone she'd recommend to step in.

Firs thing tomorrow I'm calling another piano tech in town. I know he will do a good job as other teachers use him as well. I'd rather not risk making things worse

Just a follow-up, my "substitute" piano tech came this morning and used a silicon-based glue just under the cap (he was reluctant to remove the whole thing since it's all one piece). He said we'll see if that was enough, and if not he'll come back and try removing the whole cap and reglueing it. He only charged me $5! I protested but he insisted since it didn't take much of his time. He recommended letting it set up completely for 12 hours before trying to play it, so hopefully that did the trick! I'll find out tomorrow in between basting the turkey and entertaining guests !

Anyways, thanks for the advice, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Red flags are waving!

Silicone based glue for securing ivory?
$5 Service charge?

Sounds weird to me!

I could be mistaken about the kind of glue he used. But he's very reputable in the area, so I trust his judgment more than my memory of what he said.

It is indeed difficult to remove the keytop from the key body, especially if he's going to work with the key still in the piano!

He had to pull out the action and take out the key. The ivory is easily removed by steaming the key. He should use waffers to glue ivory, no other glue will do it. He should check the entire keyboard for other loose keytops!

If you paid only $5.00, you get only that amount of work!

I've never charged so little money in a service call.

He said of course that if what he did didn't work, he'd come back and remove the entire cap (yes, by steaming it off).

Wow, I am really surprised that it appears the vast majority of piano techs who post here are so cantankerous. First you argue with me about not actually having ivory keys rather than answer my initial question about what I could do about it myself. Then when I follow the advice about getting a tech to take care of it, now you're all about saying how bad this other piano tech is because he didn't disassemble my piano first and charge me $100.

I guess you are right.

There is no harm to the piano, and if it works, then it works.

Good for you!

Yes, some Petrof's have ivories. I have serviced a 9' Petrof from the 80's that had ivory keys.