One of my first instruments, bought when I was a teenager, was
a beaten-up British-made Weber Duo-Art grand.  It had been used in
a bar and the lid was gouged and scratched down to the bare wood from
beer crates being slid over it.  It was filthy inside and the bass
strings were "tubby" in the extreme.

My Father and I decided to try to clean and refurbish the existing
strings, rather than go to the expense of replacing them.  Someone
had told us that boiling the strings in vinegar would clean them
very effectively.

To this end, we acquired a big pan, filled it with vinegar and, with
some difficulty, removed the coiled strings from the piano and boiled
them up a few at a time, removing them from the pan periodically in
order to 'pass a knot through them' in order to open and relax the
coils, so that the dirt could escape.

We made a rookie error in performing this task in the kitchen rather
than outside and, after a couple of hours, our pleasure at having
completed this very unpleasant task was somewhat muted by the discovery
that every piece of silver, brass and copper throughout the entire
house had been turned a filthy black colour by the corrosive vinegar
fumes.  My Mother was not pleased!

However, the job was a complete success as the strings not only gleamed
like new but sounded like new as well.  I can't imagine that replacement
strings of any kind would have sounded any better.

I feel very strongly that the best replacement strings for any quality
piano are those which are as close as possible to the strings which
were originally used; To use anything different would destroy or
compromise the originality of the instrument, and would produce a sound
different to that intended by the manufacturer, which would surely not
be a good thing.  It will also make life very difficult for any future
restorer who wishes to recreate the original sound of the instrument.

Greetings from the UK,
Rowland Lee