Thread: Paling Piano Victor patent

Congratulations on the new arrival Pat. If you get no response in here on removing the shellac from your piano then try a post in the finishing forum.

I havent tried removing shellac from a piano but Ive just removed shellac from the back of a guitar after problems with French Polishing same. I scraped most of the shellac off with a cabinet scraper and then finished off with 120 grit sand paper working down to 600 grit before re-applying shellac.

Sandpaper will get shellac off but the paper loads up quickly. I clear the paper using a cabinet scraper and get a few more miles out of the paper.

I have been told more than once that the staging/set guys at ABC TV Melb stripped back and painted white (house paint) a Steinway grand. Not sure if they sanded it or stripped it chemically. Anyway it looked great in the shot that called for a white grand piano. Sounded like crap for the rest of its life. One down in the process of elimination....

dry scraper
vacuum cleaner
rubber gloves
steel wool and meths
lots of rags

in that order.

do it outside.

I've done it. horrible job. good luck!

Oh and one other piece of advice. (my brother is a piano tuner so i know these things.)

Get it tuned first. If it can be tuned, and the hammers and dampers are all working properly, and the felts and leathers are all there, and the soundboard has no cracks, and the pins are tight ... its maybe worth the effort.

But if you have mechanical problems that you only find out about later, you'll either be left with a lovely piece of honkytonk furniture with broken strings, or an expensive mediocre piano that needs constant tuning.