Jim, et al, Hey, Harvey! Glad to see that you are still making trouble! Reading the posts on this, and letting things percolate around in the soggy mess that passes for my mind, I remember a B (yeah, wrong model, I know) with a similar set of issues. After much scratching of the head (less bald than now) and trying of different things, I finally found the culprit to be the bridge pins binding against the under side of the plate in the low tenor...but only under some temp/humidity conditions (both relatively high). Yes, the piano was in a bar...of sorts, Howard Lundsman's old Concerts-by-the-Sea, under the pier in Manhattan Beach...great jazz club...kind of picked up where the old Mannehole and Lighthouse (both originally Shelly Manne places) left off. (Shelly Manne, 1920 - 1984, was one of the all-time great and stylistically versatile jazz drummers; perhaps best known later on leading the group: "Shelly Manne & His Men"...there seems to be a number of his recordings available from the Jazz at the Philharmonic series being re-released on CD.) But I digress... I don't think that this is what you are dealing with here...sounds to me like you've got a good picture of things and several good ways to go. At the same time, I wanted to pass this bit of nostalgia along before is disappears forever beneath encroaching senility... Cheers! Horace At 12:13 PM 4/1/2004, you wrote: >Hello folks, > >I need some sage advice (or best guesses) from the Steinway guru's. > >Steinway L, #498954, previously serviced several times, the last time >being 12/05/03. A pitch adjustment of 9 cents was done. The >environment at that time was temperature of 67 and RH at 35%. These >values are quite consistent over the four calls since getting the >client, with the exception of the slight pitch raise. > >The day -after- the last tuning, I got a call that the piano was >making strange noises. Since I was across the street with another >client at the time, a return call was easily done. > >The client admitted that he had played the piano after the tuning, and >everything was fine. The next day, the noises began. Figuring a paper >clip, lamp rattle, forgotten tool (me?), etc., I assumed it would be a >straight in/out deal. > >No such luck. In octaves 5~6 (crossing the scale break) there is an >obnoxious sound on certain notes. It requires at least a medium to mf >blow to generate the sound, and that sound could best be described as >a "grunt". The last time I heard this characteristic sound was on a >vertical, whose soundboard was lose from the liner. > >Cursory checks (including crawling under and scraping wood shards and >glue sizing from the soundboard perimeter) did nothing. Ditto touching >things... well, I won't go into an entire check list. > >Further inspection topside revealed that the nose bolt for the >bass/tenor strut seemed to be touching the cutout in the soundboard. >Unfortunately, this was only a visual thing since I didn't have any >type of feeler to verify this from above or below. The bolt also >seemed to be leaning, with a rake slightly toward the player and >favoring the bass. I don't normally pay a lot of attention to this >type of thing unless there is cause to do so. This was one of those >times. > >I'm open to any, and preferably alternate ideas. However, if this nose >bolt is the noise culprit, it generates a bunch of questions for me. > >Questions like: >(1) has it always been that way? >(2) why is it leaning (factory expedient via sledge hammer?) >(3) could the results of a 9 cent pitch raise cause -just- enough >board movement to hit the "magic" spot between board and bolt? >(4) how does one "fix" something like this without excessive >trauma/expense? >(5) is the easy way out (get several bass strings out of the way; >file/rasp) a fix or a Band-Aid? Instinct tells me the bolt should be >straight and centered. >(6) why is the noise generated by higher frequencies? (this one is >more or less rhetorical) > >I reluctantly admitted to the client that I was out of ammunition >at the time, but am scheduled for another call soon. Since I've heard >nothing more from the client, I'd like to think that whatever caused >the problem has gone away as mysteriously as it appeared! Either way, >I need to be prepared to do... something. > >-- >Regards, > Jim mailto:harvey@greenwood.net > >_______________________________________________ >caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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