Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Make your own string cover

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?