Geoff- I recently had excellent results de-sizzling upright dampers using a buzzing electric tooth brush - not the oscillating or rotating type, but the kind that buzzes at middle C. It did a thorough job of opening up the felt without tearing or lifting. If you raise the damper stop rail on a grand, you can probably lift the dampers enough to get the toothbrush under and buzz them to de-sizzle without removing them. Maybe even an ordinary manual toothbrush could work this way.... Ed Sutton....tool fool of pianotech -----Original Message----- >From: Geoff Sykes <thetuner at ivories52.com> >Sent: Nov 19, 2006 2:06 PM >To: 'Pianotech List' <pianotech at ptg.org> >Subject: RE: Sudden damper buzz syndrome > >Stephen -- > >Thank you for including Jim's message in your reply. It appears as if my >trusty spam filter prevented me from ever receiving it. > >Thanks to Jim, Stephen and David for this suggestion. Yes, it is definitely >a case of sizzling dampers. And their being hard and/or crusty was what I >was thinking. How to go about remedying that was what I was looking for and, >once again, this listserver has come to the rescue. > >Fortunately this client is a decades old friend, and he is also aware that >this is not the result of anything I did. He's aware that piano's require a >bit of sorcery once in a while, and "oinking" the dampers sounds like the >right solution. And fortunately it's not a difficult procedure. > >Thanks everyone! > >-- Geoff Sykes >-- Assoc. Los Angeles > > >-----Original Message----- >From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf >Of Stephen Papastephanou >Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 8:33 AM >To: Pianotech List >Subject: Re: Sudden damper buzz syndrome > > >I had the exact same experience with a Yamaha C7 and the cure prescribed >below cured immediately the problem. >S.P. > >On 11/19/06 12:15 AM, "WilsonianJ at aol.com" <WilsonianJ at aol.com> wrote: > > > >Dear Geoff, > >I have a sneaking suspicion that the dampers are "crusty" and are "sizzling" >upon contact with the strings. Your client may have only now noticed after >listening more intently to your tuning. I highly doubt that the issue was >caused by your tuning, but your client may believe differently. The quick >fix for sizzling dampers is to remove the damper and soften the felt a bit. >It doesn't take much so if you very conservatively scratch the surface of >the felt, you should ameliorate the problem. Roughing up the felt too much >will cause leaking dampers. Try it on one or two first to see if that's the >problem. > >Good luck, Geoff, > >Jim Wilson, RPT >L.A. Chapter > > > >In a message dated 11/18/06 7:34:07 PM, thetuner at ivories52.com writes: > > >Greetings all -- > >Last week I tuned a customers Kawai grand piano. The customer was out of >town so he left me a key to his studio. He returned the other day and while >he is happy with the tuning and the other repair work I completed he >mentioned that all the wound strings are now exhibiting a buzz when the >damper comes into contact with the played string. Once the damper has >completely engaged the buzzing stops and the strings damp correctly. He says >it is objectionably noticeable only on the entire wound bass string section >of the piano. This is not something that I noticed while I was there so I'm >curios as to your thoughts on what could have caused this and what I might >be able to do to affect a timely fix. FWIW, he lives a couple of miles from >the beach but has a DC de-humidifier installed. The piano also lives in a >small, relatively well sealed but otherwise non-climate controlled garage >studio. > >-- Geoff Sykes > -- Assoc. Los Angeles. > > > > > > > > >-- > > >
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