Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum is there a way regild the piano harp without removing it?

Is there anyway to get my piano harp back to it's shining gold sparkle without having to remove the plate and re-paint it?

Try reposting in the piano technicians forum for more views.

You have to take off all the strings to refinish the frame properly and (supposing it is a grand) at that stage taking out the frame is probably just as easy as messing around with masking tape and newspaper and will give a much better result. If it is an upright, masking it is probably a better idea, although not doing it at all is an even better idea since nobody much is likely to see it.

If it is just a question of cleaning, a weakish vinegar solution and some cotton rags wrung out to nearly dry will be as good as anything, where you need to get under the strings a flexible metal strip will allow you to push the cloth around. A cheap T square or metal ruler will serve for this. If you want to clean the soundboard as well this also works although it might be better to use dry cloths.

Oh, and take out the action berore starting.

When I bought my 1978 Yamaha C7, I thought the paint on the cast-iron plate looked so good, and so new, the piano had been rebuilt at some point in it's life. You could even see tiny swirl marks under the paint where a DA sander had been.

Also, there were other clues that lead me to believe the piano had been rebuilt at some point. But, to my surprise, I was told by a highly experienced piano tech that it had not been rebuilt but was indeed in original condition, albeit very good original condition.

I would imagine parts of the harp could be masked off and painted in place, without removing it, but Jean Claude is probably right in that it may not be worth the effort, or the risk of getting paint on things were you don't want it.

Rick

Well yes. In truth you would really have to want a shiny frame to consider taking it out and re-gilding it. The trouble with trying to re-gild odd problem areas is that colour matching is a nightmare.

It's not worth it - it will look patchy and amateurish. Just try to clean it as best you can and wait until the strings are off before attempting any painting.

I am very glad that when my piano was restrung and the soundboard repaired, I was persuaded not to have the frame regilded, but to leave it with its original patina.

Would cleaning and then clear coating by hand be an option?