Cleaning UNDER piano strings????

[TOM KAN PA]

How do you clean (dust) under the strings on a grand piano?

[sijka]

I have a cousin who is a pianist and he says this "only way to do it is blow it out...however, unfortunately, the dust gets everywhere, but that is the ONLY way to do it...and it has to be blown AWAY from the hammers...also it is detrimental to the strings, because as the dust is lodged around, it gets in between the weaves of the strings, thus dulling the sound of the strings from about the mid tone down...if she is more worried about whether it looks nice....then clean it....otherwise if she plays it, and wants a good, clean, sharp sound...leave it alone...the dust would do more damage than good if she actually plays it...you might also tell her to NEVER under any circumstances, ever use furniture polish or a metal polish on the strings whether she plays it or not...if she does, she better be prepared to spend approximately $4000 for a new set of strings for it because within one week, they will literally start to disintegrate.

Sijka