Dead Note

[Fred Sturm]

Avery,
	I've experienced the exact same thing. Turned out residue between
string and capo were responsible, and I had to loosen the string enough
to get a damp cloth between string and capo to clean before I finally
solved the problem. Amazingly dead notes (their were three in a row).
And no visible residue anywhere (if the customer hadn't told me there
was a spill, I'd still be there trying to figure it out <g>).
	But B flat2? That's a wound string through an agraffe, no? Still, might
be worth while lowering tension considerably, and cleaning the best you
can. Liquids can wick into small spaces, and I guess residue in an
agraffe hole could maybe cause that much havoc.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

Avery Todd wrote:
> 
> Hi list,
> 
> Got a question for you. I was tuning a Kawai RX-6 (7') this
> morning and the first time I played Bb2, it sounded almost
> completely dead. It was so obvious that "what the h*** just
> popped out. :-) It has the sort of sound that a hammer makes
> when the felt has come unglued from one side. Much softer and
> deader than the notes around it.
> 
> There's evidence of a spill of something sticky, like coke,
> on the plate in the two middle sections. There's still some
> residue there and the plate bushings are all a grayish color.
> For the rest of the piano, the bushings are the normal wood
> color. There's no evidence anything got into the action except
> for 3-4 keys that have a dried liquid stain on them.
> 
> The hammer is not the problem. I lifted the damper and plucked
> the strings and got the same dead type sound. I even pulled the
> action to look closer at the hammer. There's also no evidence
> of any problem at the bridge. Strangely, there's also no
> evidence of anything on the wire or felt under the strings by
> the tuning pins of that particular note, although there is on
> some others.
> 
> My question is why would only that one note sound that way if
> indeed, the spill is responsible?
> 
> Any other thoughts about why?
> 
> The piano will have very heavy use for the next 3 weeks, until
> juries are over, so so it would be very difficult to find time
> to do much of anything except restring that particular note.
> But with all the recitals going on, I really don't want to even
> do that right now.
> 
> Thanks for any ideas any of you might have.
> 
> Regards,
> Avery
> University of Houston
> 
> P.S. Have you ever noticed that when the words "The IRS" are
> combined, it spells "Theirs"? Just thought I'd throw that in on
> this fateful day!