There are many things one can do to eliminate the sizzle on a quick fix. I am not adverse to placing a small mute between two of the strings in the front duplex. It deadens the overall sound a little. Voicing is another possibility. The trick with the glue I tried many times. The results were not convincing so I don't do it anymore. The long range fix is a complicated venture. Redressing the capo and restring, as far as my experience, is not likely to fix the problem. Recapping at this point seems to provide the greatest relief so far. The problem still resurfaces after it has been played in. I suspect that the "noise" really has to do with a coupling that is too strong between the string and the bridge soundboard system. There is always a certain amount of noise that comes from the string do to the physical nature of the system. The wave form imparted to the string from the hammer takes time to travel between its boundaries, the bridge pin and capo. The strongest shock at reflection is initially, before the energy in the pulse traveling down the string has had a chance set up a standing wave. This means that the movements caused at the boundaries due to the pulse will not be harmonic entities of the note, they will be noise. Voicing down the hammer means that there will not be an energy overload in the string enough to make the sizzle audible. Another trick is to take a punch and reduce the slant of the terminating bridge pin. This decouples the string from the bridge slightly. You will also notice an increase in sustain when you do this because that initial energy is not given away to the soundboard as quick as it was when it had a stronger coupling. You can follow up with a shot of CA glue to take care of the oblong hole in the bridge. **************************************************************************** Michael J. Wathen Phone: 513-556-9565 Piano Technician Fax: 513-556-3399 College-Consevatory of Music Email: Michael.Wathen@UC.Edu University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH 45221-0096 http://www.uc.edu/~wathenmj
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