[CAUT] Puzzler

[Paul Williams RPT]

was it a hardened damper felt? somewhere?... Or a loose electrical outlet 
plug screw in a nearby wall ( I have found that) Paul T Williams RPT 
pno2nr at whidbey.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Kline" <skline at peak.org>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 9:58 AM
Subject: [CAUT] Puzzler


> From yesterday ...
>
> I put in a long service day on a neglected and much-played
> Mason & Hamlin BB, about ten years old. When I first started
> pulling the action out, I heard a soft repeated Eb7, sort of
> like a very loose bobbling hammer, but not quite. It got
> softer and faster till the sound disappeared, like when a
> ping pong ball is bouncing, and then coming to rest.
>
> I said, "oops", and wondered if some action trouble had
> a hammer doing a dance in the high treble -- but the
> hammer was down, just like the others. "Go figure",
> I said to myself, and carried on.
>
> A couple of quiet hours later, with the keys on a little
> folding cart six feet from the piano, and the action reversed
> (hammers out) on the bare keybed to get teflon on the
> knuckles -- there was the same sound again. Eb7. Nothing was
> near the Eb7 string.
>
> I never have heard that sound from a piano before, let alone with
> no action and keys involved.
>
> What was it?
>
> (P.S. I figured it out ...)
>
>