Plate Ringing

[Allan L. Gilreath, RPT]

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Kevin,

I've never been able to trace down a ringing sound to a plate.  However, you
might eliminate some possibilities by trying some different troubleshooting.
Get a strip of wood (oh say 3/4" x 3/4") and whatever length is easy to work
with (12"-18") with a strip of thick soft felt glued to one edge.  You press
this strip against a large group of strings and eliminate any leakage that
the dampers are letting through.  This works especially well when a damper
leak is occurring at a sympathetic vibration other than the fundamental (or
when the fundamental of the string is the sympathetic vibration from another
note.

Makes it easy to find these kind of problems and would eliminate problems in
the damper system before you start trying to change any plate resonance.
Personally I would much prefer to make some changes in the dampers than to
the plate...

Hope this helps.

Allan
Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
Assistant Director - TEAM2001
July 11-15, 2001 - Reno, NV
agilreath@mindspring.com
http://www.ptg.org/conv.htm
Director: Laura Olsen, RPT
Assistant Directors: Allan Gilreath, RPT - Gary Neie, RPT - Dale Probst, RPT

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Kevin E. Ramsey
  Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 10:47 PM
  To: pianotech@ptg.org
  Subject: Plate Ringing


      I had an odd occurrence today that I really hope that you all can help
me with. I had a customer who has a new Steinway model 4510 (model 45?)
studio, with damper problems. When I got out there, it's kind of a damper
problem, but not really. The problem is;

  A)  The whole piano rings, when you play a chord or any note in a staccato
fashion.

  B)  The pedals are not lifting the dampers.

  C) The spoons are not too early, the strings have plenty of follow.

  D) The dampers are aligned properly.

      In short, no real problem with the damper system. What I did notice
while working on the trapwork was that if I stuck the plate with the heel of
my hand, the whole piano would ring. When you struck the piano anywhere, it
would ring.
      I did notice that some of the bi-chords where indented by the strings,
but they had plenty of follow-through.
      The waste ends on the hitch pin side of the strings were already
braided.
      I tried striking notes with my hand on groups of strings, and no
effect. I strummed groups of notes and found nothing leaking. And yet the
whole piano had a real ring to it.

      I'm just wondering if the plate, being sand cast, could have warped
and twisted enough to cause some weird tension on it which would cause it to
ring like a bell. I mean, if something as massive as a plate wanted to ring,
could you really expect the energy to go up the strings to be damped by
little pieces of felt?
      I hope that someone can help me out. Tomorrow I call Kent Webb, and
see if he can help.
      One interesting note here. This piano was just purchased three months
ago. I looked it up in the Atlas, it was produced in '96.



  Kevin E. Ramsey
  ramsey@extremezone.com

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