I’m starting another thread on homemade string covers.
Someone PMd me asking for info, saying photos had been removed from my old thread.
Instead of responding with a PM I'll post here so others may benefit.
Sorry if it's repetitive for some.

String covers keep dirt, dust and airborne cooking oil vapors out of your piano.
Dust particles absorb water just like a sponge.
When dust settles on your strings, tuning pins and action parts it accelerates rust and oxidation.
A string cover will keep your piano looking, sounding and working like new longer.

Also, if you have a dammpchaser a string cover helps to maintain the humidity-controlled micro-climate around the soundboard.

You can buy beautiful string covers made by company called Edward’s String Covers.
They are several hundred dollars but look much better than my home made one.
(You could build a frame for your homemade one so it looks better)

The Edward’s are made of a woven 100% real wool fabric.
It is not felt.

Felt is made from pressed wool fibers and is more dense than woven cloth.
If you hold up the fabric of an Edward’s cover you can see light through it.
You can’t see light through felt because it is denser.
I believe that felt will block out more of the finest particles, such as pollen and mold spores and cooking oil vapor, than a woven cloth that you can see light through.

Synthetic felt or poly/wool blend is cheaper and easier to get.
I prefer 100% wool felt as I suspect it may have better moisture-related properties than synthetic.
Real wool felt for my 9’2” piano was only about $85, a small investment.
Plus, Edwards using the more costly real wool leads me to believe there is a good reason.
Sure, a poly/wool blend is better than no string cover so make your own call.

Central Shippee is a company in New Jersey that sells wool felt.
Call them and they’ll mail you you one of these cards of actual samples.







You want the lighter 14 ounce felt.
They make only a couple colors in the 14-oz.
The thicker 16-oz blocks more sound, though I know a person who has it and say’s it’s fine.


When calculating how much you need measure your piano’s length.
You want to cover the tuning pins too.



It comes in rolls that are 60" wide, which is wide enough for you piano (Bosie Imperials maybe not)
Tell them you want it shipped in a roll, do not fold it.

Order a few inches extra because the angle made by your keyboard and the hinge side of the lid may be greater than 90 degrees.
If you ordered just barely enough, and assumed that angle was 90 degrees (but it wasn’t) your tuning pins on the treble side would not get covered.
Lay felt on piano and cut with scissors, but make it too big by a couple inches all around.

To prevent the felt from sagging down onto the strings I tied fishing line between the plate struts.



If there are not enough struts to lift the felt from the strings everywhere (like with my piano) you can use any small object to lift the line up from the plate.
I used a couple scraps of redwood.



Just tuck the extra felt between the plate and the rim.
If there is too much excess felt cut it off.
I left mine too big because some day I may build a frame for it.
Yes, it doesn’t look tight and pretty but I don’t care, I’m going for function.
Again, you can build a frame if you want it to look better.
I remove mine for recitals and parties and recording.

About once a month I'll carefully fold it over on top of itself, take it outside and shake the dust out.
When I do this in the sun it is amazing how much dust comes out.

kenny-
This is a clever idea. I have been toying with the idea of a Edwards cover. Can you talk about how it affects the sound of the piano , if at all?

I had extra felt so I made covers for my music desk.











Velcro holds it on.

To me it affects the sound VERY slightly.
It is just barely noticeable in the highest frequencies.
Some people say they hear no sound difference.
I just leave it on 99% of the time when I practice.

I am planning on doing some double blind tests.

It is possible that the Edward's covers make less of a difference in sound because they are not as dense as felt.

This is a great thread. Thanks Kenny. It should be be keep at the top of the page.

Mark...

Wonderful info, thanks so much !
So is it likely that 75% wool and 25% cotton will not block moisture out as well as 100% wool?

BTW I think your private inbox is full!

Thanks for the detailed instructions & pics. Does one have to do anything for moth prevention?

Well frankly I have no science to support wool being better for string covers.
I am just guilty of repeating what I've heard.

I know that wool fibers do have a shape and texture that still allow warm air to be trapped even when wet.
That is a good quality for clothing for humans and sheep to stay warm even when wet.

But the goal of a piano's string cover is not to trap heat given off by the piano in the rain.
I have been told wool IS better for pianos by piano techs I have a lot of respect for.

I'd welcome anyone to post and explain exactly why it is better.

That said, $85 is chump change compared to the price of my piano.
Even if there is a slight chance wool is better I don't mind spending the $85.
YMMV.

IMHO without a humidity-altering thing like a dammpchaser the RH on both sides of a wool or synthetic cover will be the same. I think it will just equalize out.
Still, I like the natural real wool.

I have had a wool string cover since 2000 and have not seen any moth damage yet here in Southern California.
Not sure about your region.

I have a 5'2" baby grand - unlike Kenny's big black beast. On a smallish piano the struts are apparently enough to support the felt cover and I was able to get away without using the fishing line. I'm the friend with the 16 oz felt cover. No, I can't hear any reduction in sound. I used the 16 oz for added stiffness (less swag between the struts) and greater color choice. I made my cover more fitted than Kenny's and I found that a good pair of sharp scissors makes a neat enough edge without the necessity of hemming. The whole project took less than an hour.

Beautiful job.

Frycek and Kenny-
Thanks for the answers to my question. You guys are quite crafty. Kenny- if you branch out and do furniture, I have a loveseat that needs some work

Thanks again!

kenny..

did you sew the music stand cover with a machine?

what very nice work... it looks just perfect.

my tech always comments on how dusty my piano is. i should make a cover maybe sometime when i don't have anything to do.

Yup I made it myself with a 1956 sewing machine I got at a garage sale.

Hey, if you have a sewing machine, I'll bring felt and velcro and make you one when I visit next month.
I think I have enough extra felt to make another 3-piece music desk cover.

M'kay?

but, but, but my machines are both broken.. i really must do something about that. sewing machines are so handy.

Kenny, I am just wondering if you get any problem with the little redwood supports buzzing on the plate?

Or are they somehow glued to the plate? And if not, don't they tend to fall over sometimes when you take off the cover?

By the way, I do think your music desk cover looks really smart. I can't help thinking that solid black music desks tend to look a bit stark.

The redwood triangles do not rattle, the benefit of a three sided thing under pressure.

They are not glued down and yes once in a while one will fall over when removing the cover.
No biggie, just put it back up.
I filed a little groove in the top for the fishing line to drop into.

The music desk covers were made a tad small so they'd be nice and taut.
Music desks on polished-finish pianos get so scratched up so quickly.

Another advantage of the antique fretted kind!

A big Thank You to Kenny for this excellent thread.

I have often considered a string cover for my own pianos, but, I tend to practice with the lid down, most of the time, and only opened up on occasion for the joy of the full sound. I was looking for a partial cover to go over the area that is exposed with the front cover folded open - tuning pins, dampers, etc. None seems to exist.

A friend happens to sew and also does machine embroidery. Aha! I asked for some help and then went and bought 14 oz. wool felt from the the local fabric store. For two pianos, it was less than $8.00 and was in a 60" width.

I took the measurement from the front of the frame, over the pins, to just where the curve begins. Then I measured the interior width, side to side. It forms a simple rectangle, but, the cover would still extend past the lid hinges and cover the open area.

The fore and aft sides have a small, hemmed pocket for support rods running side to side. I thought of wood dowels, but, she came up with the idea of cheap, extension, curtain rods - Perfect!

It works very well and keeps dust, and other unwanted things, from falling inside. When I open the lid(s), for sound or visual presentation for guests, I don't need to remove the cover.

There was a plus, but totally unnecessary, that she was able to embroider the make and serial number of each piano, at the front edge of the cover, and is visible in front of the music desk. It just adds some visual interest where you are accustomed to seeing the tuning pins.

If anyone tends to play with the lid down, this might be a very simple solution.

Apple - How about going to a garage sale? !!! Or if you can wait, I think Kenny is going to study to become an RSMT.

Marty 2,
Would it be possible to post some pictures of your shorter version of the piano cover. I believe I can visualize it from your description, but a picture would really be informative. I also play with just the front of my piano open , just for the music desk, and a short cover may be a good alternative for me. If you have a picture of the curtain rods, this would help also. Thanks

Marty_2

I second the picture request...

My camera has died, but, I'll see what I can do. It's time to go shopping anyway.

First, I will have to check in at CameraWorld for advice. There is a thread about a new one with lenses that are ground on the north side of a mountain in Switzerland and the shutter actions are of Renner design. I think it is the Nikonsteinwin 190, but, I'm not sure.

I'll be honest and fess up. My camera didn't die, it was a case of involuntary cameraslaughter. I have learned to never lean too far to the side of a canoe, trying to get the perfect shot. I found my brief and unexpected swim to be refreshing, but, my camera did not.

--

Land of lakes...lol

Hi all,...

I'm a student of Kenny's School of Homemade String Covers,... so I would like to add my 2 cents,...

I also have a shorter piano - M&H A.

I bought my felt from Aetna Felt .

60" wide 100% wool felt - they only have 15 3/4 oz weight - they have different color choices than Central Shippee and they also provide free samples. Get samples from both companies and decide on the color that works best for you.

I bought 2 yards of the felt,... and used the leftover for a keyboard cover so far,... Eventually I'll use the rest of the leftovers for a music desk cover,... the M&H's music desk shape is a bit tricky,...

I also do not notice any sound differences with the heavier felt,... but I'm no audiophile and I have nowhere near Kenny's or Frycek's piano skills.

Make sure you use a fabric scissors for a nice clean cut.

I used the piano lid as a template. Close the piano. Unroll the felt on top of the lid and cut 1-2 inches wider than the lid.

In my case,... the cover is touching the bass strings so I made a couple of felt covered wood dowels attached with velcro to keep it from touching the strings.

When you remove it,... once in a while you may want to run a lint remover roller accross the top to remove any accumulated dust.

Here's my String Cover





Dowels



Velcro



I hope this helps,...

Regards,

Robert

I was wondering if there is a clear picture of Edwards cover somewhere in the forum? I would like to see the differences in texture between woven wool and wool felt. Anyone knows?

FYI {For Your Information} Everybody,

This post is not being made, by me, to start any controversy regarding the various brands of pianos owned by all of you wonderful Piano Forum members, or the methods that you might employ to protect your piano's music rack. In my opinion, Kenny's slip cover music rack protector is a brilliant solution.

But, I thought this might be an alternative way of protecting your Ebony Polish music rack ...
-------------------
From Kawai's Web www.kawaius.com

Hard Finish Music Rack:

The music rack must support a variety of music books and music writing implements. Kawai's Hard Finish protects the music rack from being scratched or marred... preserving the piano's beauty. The Hard Finish Music Rack is an exclusive feature of all RX Series grand pianos finished in Polished Ebony.
-------------------------

I thought that If interested in re-doing your music rack, you might want to check with your local Kawai dealer and ask if they can refinish your ebony polish music rack with Hard Finish. I don't know if they can or cannot. Just my 2 cents thought.

No flames please, my asbestos flame retardant suit is at the Dry Cleaners...

Best to all ..

Bear

Bear-

I have my stopwatch and I'll be counting the seconds ....

I have a new RX model piano with the Hard Finish rack. So far so good...but I think I still like Kenny's idea. I tend to place a good amount of material on the sides on either end of the music rack. Bad habit --but my son works out of 5 books and I have 6 of my own. It's a constant shuffle. I think I would feel better at least having the platforms on either side of the rack covered.

I also have a comb binding machine here at home and most of our piano books are crafted to lay flat. So far--no scratches but it makes me a tad nervous.

p/s... Robert--that is a beauty! Well done!

Hi Less Rubato,

I think the entire music desk could possibly be refinished with Hard Finish.

But, as I stated before, Kenny's solution to the problem is brilliant and I wouldn't hesitate using his method on my piano too if I knew how to sew!

Warmest regards,

Bear

But Bear, wouldn't it be better to extinguish the the flames with water?

I put my asbestos suite in the resevoir of my Piano Saver system, add some Tide, and agitate with some Rachmaninov. It comes out nice and clean.

I wish Kawai would have put the hard finish on the music tables (on the sides of the stand) too. The RX2 I was considering is all scratched up on the tables from the students having recital on it.

Hey Marty 2,

Thanks for the advice.
I guess during the last flame war,
I went wrong by trying to put out the flames
by dousing them with gasoline.

Best,

Bear

Dear Barry,

You always meant well, even when your opinions differed from others, so NOBODY should ever hold anything against you!

I must say though that the GS30 I tried sounds better than the 2 RX2 I tried recently. Is it because the RX2s were out of tune and scratched up on the surface? maybe, or maybe because the GS30 was simply magical due to its exceptionally good genes (and prep)? Who knows.

I however thank you for your suggestions as I agree with you 100% that Kawai as a company, makes wonderful instruments!

RoseMe,

Excellent point.
Although I'm retired I'll suggest to Kawai to consider
doing just what you said.
Hard Finish on the entire music desk.

For the RX-2 that you are considering, the side tables
could be buffed out if they are just surface scratches.
If not, Kenny's solution would cover up the scratches.

All the best,

Bear

RoseMe,

Thank you very much for the kind words.

Hard for me to answer your questions regarding the 2 RX-2s vs the GS-30. Obviously tuning, extra good prep, size, acoustics, and many other things affect touch and tone with various pianos
even of the same brand and model.
In my opinion, you are shopping the right way by auditioning many different pianos until you find the one you like best, be it a Kawai or not.

Best of luck with your search RoseMe.

Sincerely,

Bear

P.S. Humongous apologies to Kenny for my post piracy!

Aye Swabbie, Off With Yer Head!

I like the wood dowels idea.
Do you have to have velcro on there? If I don't add velcro will that be a big issue?

Hi RoseMe,...

You can get by without the velcro. It's just going to be a bit trickier to adjust the cover from side to side when you put it on since the dowel may shift and fall on the strings.

There are 2 ways to eliminate this hassle,... either use longer dowels or,... I'm thinking about redoing this with longer sleeve filled with 3 separate dowel segments so it can bend and sit nicely on the plate.

Instead of creating individual sleeves for the dowels,... I've also read about others successfully using fabric glue to attach another piece of felt right on the cover to create pockets for you to insert the dowel into,...

Regards,

Robert

So I got the 100% wool woven fabric today. Will post picture of the fabric, please tell me if it is a safe one to use.... Thanks!

question..... how do I attach pictures?

question..... how do I attach pictures?

My thanks to all who contributed to this sting cover thread. I priced pre-made string covers on the internet and was appalled at the $390 price tag. So I search Piano Forums, found your thread and concluded this was not something I couldn't do myself. I bought excellent grade 100% felt (just under $90 for a 6'4" piano), 4 wood dowels and some tailor's chalk. I laid the felt on the closed cover on my piano and chalked the outline of the inside rim (happens to be a raised point on the piano lid), cut the felt along the chalk line, laid the dowels at strategic angles to hold the felt off the strings and - viola - piano string cover. I had enough felt left over to make a cover for my music stand.

Thank you again!

Glad you found it helpful Bitta.

Just wanted to add my thanks, kenny!

I used to be worried about getting dust inside that I used to play with the lid down completely. But after getting my Steinway B, the sound is too beautiful to keep trapped, so I experimented with really cheap felt first and made a half-decent cover. I followed this by buying some good quality felt, and now, I am just waiting to get some time to do a proper job.

No fabric is going to change the humidity around the piano except as it is able to block airflow and/or act as thermal insulation, i.e., if a Dampp Chaser warms the air to make its relative humidity lower, and a cover can keep more of this warmth around, then humidity will be lower.

I believe the use of wool is just a red herring. Pianos use wool in other places, it's a "natural" product, so people think it's good. I think any type of fiber would provide essentially the same benefit and be much cheaper. Although people say wool is better, I bet no one has any data showing it to be true.

Roy123 - what I do know is that wool repels dirt. Or at least keeps it on the surface, given the density is correct.

What I also know is that wool keeps in the heat - and the miosture out. Given the correct density. That is why we wear it, and why sheep keeps warm and dry when it rains.

Synthetic material actually causes sweating (try a nylon, satin or silk sweater), and cotton is just not dense enough, or given it being to dense, does not breathe. Wool breathes, and in string cover form, in the correct weight, is light enough not to dampen the sound

So even though other fibers may work - I do not think that they possess the correct properties per se.

Just my thoughts. Kenny, wonderfull thread. Goin to cover my RX 6's "hard finish" as well. It DOES scratch!!!

Apologies Bear!!!

I have no scientific proof that real wool felt is better than synthetic felt for a string cover.
I was told just real wool is preferred by a tech I trust and respect.
The cost difference of less than a hundred bucks and the chance it is better makes it worth the money to me. YMMV.

I do know if you put wool under a microscope each fiber does have zillions of irregular surface features which helps trap air.
Down is another material good at trapping air.

When worn by a person (we generate heat) the air-trapping quality helps wool trap more warm air around our bodies.
Also, when wet, other fabrics compress and lose their ability to trap air but wool retains its more of its ability to trap air.
This has given real wool a reputation, a mystique even.

Naturally a piano is not a heat or a humidity generating thing.
It stands to reason to me that (lacking a dammpchaser) a piano will have the same humidity on both sides of the string cover, wool or not.

But I do believe that felt, being pressed fibers, is more effective at blocking out dust and vapors from cooking oil than a woven cloth.

Any fabric will keep dust from going through if the weave is correct, not just wool.

Wool does not keep moisture out, if by moisture you mean water in its gaseous state. Only solid, impermeable materials can do that.

Sheep may keep dry when it rains, but if so, it has very much to do with the substantial amount of oil that is in their wool. That oil is removed when the wool is processed. Humans call it lanolin. Besides, a string cover is not designed to keep rain off the strings.

If synthetic fabrics cause sweating it is because the moisture that our bodies release goes through them more slowly. Pianos don't release moisture. To the extent that Dampp Chasers release moisture, keeping it from dissipating into the room too quickly seems like a real advantage.

Cotton does breathe as do all conventional woven or felted fabrics. Air moves quite readily through all of them. Slowing down the air movement may be an advantage of string covers in addition to them keeping dust out. The slower the air moves, the more that the heat and humidity generated by a Dampp Chaser would stay where it can do some good as opposed to just drifting around the room.

I am also unimpressed that a respected tech recommends wool. The tech in question may be an expert in piano maintenance and repair, but may know little about fabrics, their insulation properties, and how air and gaseous water move through them. There's always more misinformation floating around than real information.

If anyone wants to use wool, there's no reason not to, but I think that the so-called reasons for its superiority are just not backed up by solid reasoning.

I know this is an old thread, but it comes up high in google search. Somebody mentioned making a frame - what would one of these frames look like? I want to make a string cover to protect my new baby's strings. :-)

Also, I am tending to agree with Roy123. I have read a number of decidedly unscientific explanations for why wool is better. Some seem beside the point, while some even seem totally backward: for example, wool keeps you from sweating and stinking because it is hygroscopic (absorbs water) and allows that moisture to pass through the fabric. Whether or not a piano gives off moisture, if anything I would think this argues AGAINST using wool: all the more so if you are using a Dampp-Chaser. If my humidifier is working hard to increase/decrease the humidity inside the piano, wouldn't I want to help it to maintain the humidity that it's trying to set? The more I think about this, the more I am believing synthetic fabric is, at the least, no worse than wool. Wool was best a hundred years ago because there was no other game in town.

Regarding piano technician's advice, I would seriously wonder whether they had really seen both wool and synthetic string covers, of identical thickness and quality, in identical humidity conditions, and compared the results. I would think a technician would be happy that their customers use ANY kind of string cover.