Letter to PTG Technical Editor (fwd)

[Michael Jorgensen]

Hi Steve,
     This rings a bell. String Defect?? Sounds unlikely but--- I service
a late 70s S$S B which had a raucous metallic buzz with a pulse of about
six bps on two notes in the same area.  It created difficulty tuning
unisons and sounded "hollow" to the customer.  The noise had a pitch
equal to three octaves above the fundamental plus one note.  Four RPTs,
including myself, had searched high and wide with no luck. (everything
mentioned your post).   "harmonic in the board perhaps" or a "sypathetic
buzz"?? but no solutions.  Some tried to voice it out, mute out
duplexes, and one relocated a hammer head. (like curing the cancer by
killing the patient.)  
     After a decade of defeat,  I asked if anyone had ever replaced the
strings on those unisons.  None had, so we agreed to it as a "long
shot"  experiment.   WOW!!  The harmonic was still there but it no
longer had any beats and lost much of its obnoxious metallic quality. 
The notes then sounded like the others which also contain that
harmonic.  
--Just a thought--
-Mike Jorgensen    
> 
> Dear list,
>         Here's a letter I received recently from a technician seeking
> help on a Steinway noise. Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
>         Steve
> 
> Steve Brady, RPT
> University of Washington
> Seattle, WA
> 
> 
> 
> Steinway Grand "Fuzzy Buzz"
> 
> I regularly service a Steinway B grand, approximately twenty years old.
> For many years it has had a problem with a number of notes in the mid
> treble.   Despite my best attempts to locate the source, I have been
> unable to locate a faint, "fuzzy buzz" in this region 1-1/2  octaves
> above middle C.   The instrument has spent its life in an "easy",
> moderate climate.
> 
> Although it sounds like a soundboard related noise, I have set the
> strings on the bridges, experimented with the string/ capo d astro bar
> relationship, tried muting duplex string segments, checked action parts
> for loose joints and pinning, reshaped hammers, voiced, and listened
> under the piano and inside it while it was being played.  I have cleaned
> underneath the plate, blown out the whole soundboard area with my vacuum,
> and checked for obvious soundboard and rib  problems, even for dried glue
> remnants on the edges.  I have always been able to find a remedy for
> other Steinway  treble problems, but not this one.
> 
> Has anyone out there had this experience and solved the problem?  Are
> there any methods for "getting a fix" on the source of elusive soundboard
> noises?  My customer is frustrated and so am I!  Thanks for your help!
> 
> -Tom Armstrong, RPT
> Monterey Bay Chapter, California
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