* Re: Sudden damper buzz syndrome

[Geoff Sykes]

It's really funny that you suggest this. I recently had the "opportunity" to
sand down a soundboard in preparation for refinishing. It had just received
some shims to repair some cracks. Using a small electric palm sander I was
able to get into most places, and even relatively close to the edges around
the frame. But the job still involved quite a bit of hand sanding in the
tight spots. Right after I finished that project I retired my SonicCare
electric toothbrush and upgraded to a new Oral-B electric toothbrush. In
retrospect of the sanding job I was actually thinking of a way to convert
the SonicCare into an electric sander. I'm not sure I'm ready to try it for
the first time on dampers, however. Have you actually sanded dampers with an
electric toothbrush? Damper pads are pretty fragile.
 
-- Geoff Sykes
-- Assoc. Los Angeles
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Alan R. Barnard
Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 11:21 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: * Re: Sudden damper buzz syndrome



Two words: Electric toothbrush. Hint, don't use any toothpaste.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO
Joshua 24:15





  _____  

Original message
From: "Stephen Papastephanou" 
To: "Pianotech List" 
Received: 11/19/2006 10:33:08 AM
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.








-- 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20061119/eac79ec2/attachment-0001.html