What is a good cleaning product to get years of dirt, dust, spilled drinks, and other crap off of pianos? I am really sick of playing on such gross pianos at school and I'd like to clean a couple up. Is windex good? The pianos are wood and the shiny black finish.

I know this works well on long-abused hardwood floors - a dilute solution of Murphy's Oil Soap. If you saw the conditions of these floors when I first moved into my apt., you'd think they were too far gone. At least I managed to get them to a respectable condition.

Maybe you can try it on your school's pianos and see if that makes a difference.

Edit: Hmmm, I should read carefully before I answer!!! Black finish, eh? Maybe the Murphy's Oil Soap won't help you there. Check on a small, inconspicuous part of the piano to see if the Windex would have a bad effect on it (i.e., if you see the black finish coming off onto your cleaning cloth, then you know it's not the solution for you!)

I have a friend who swears by the Orange Glo stuff. Haven't tried it myself, but it seems to be touted as the All Purpose Cleaner.

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: ChemicalGrl ]

Well, I would advise against Windex only because of the ammonia, which can easily dull many finishes. You can try other window cleaners (like Glass Plus or Sparkle) that don't contain ammonia. In fact, that's what my dealer recommended for occasional heavy-duty cleaning.

Amy,

A similar question was recently asked on the Piano World Tuner-Technician's forum, although the question related more to the removal of scratches in a high-gloss polyester finish. Sam Lewis, one of the very knowledgable piano tuner/refinishers who posts on these forums, recommended using Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax automotive polish, among others, to remove fine scratches. You could try this to clean (and polish) the pianos, and at the same time remove some minor scrathes. It's available in most auto stores as well as K-Mart, Walmart, etc.

I recall a post awhile back where Steve Cohen or Larry Fletcher (can't remember which one) recommended Cory polish for polishing. Don't know how well it cleans though.

Hope this helps.

Mike