[pianotech] singing sustain, what to do?

[Mike Spalding]

David,

My service fee is enough to cover tuning plus a little squeak 
elimination or diagnosis.  Haven't exceeded the budget on this one, nor 
have I made any promises.  Your suggestion to turn it over to Steinway 
is a good one.  However, I do get warm fuzzy feelings when customers 
decide they'd rather pay someone they know and trust (me) than ask for a 
free repair from the store.

Mike

Porritt, David wrote:
> Mike:
>
> You are obviously a much nicer guy than I am.  I should follow you around and learn some things I'm sure.  If I had encountered this I'd say "call Steinway and have them fix it under warranty".  If the cause is as you say, it's a design problem and they'll never know about it until they see it for themselves.  Since it is under warranty I wouldn't feel right charging the customer for the repair, and yet doing work for free is not a good option either.  
>
> dp
>
> David M. Porritt, RPT
> dporritt at smu.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Mike Spalding
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 5:15 PM
> To: Pianotech
> Subject: [pianotech] singing sustain, what to do?
>
> Relatively new small Essex grand.  When the sustain pedal is operated 
> very slowly, it makes a moaning noise.  Removed the action, removed the 
> pitman, and raised the tray by hand, heard the noise.  Here's what I 
> think is causing it:  the lift tray is aluminum, the felt is soft and 
> thick, and the tray pivot is nowhere near the underlever centers.  So 
> when the tray is lifted, the underlevers slide on the felt, playing the 
> aluminum tray like a violin.  What to do?  My inclination would be to 
> replace the tray felt with something harder/smoother, and polish the 
> undersides of all the underlevers with 400 grit sandpaper or finer.  But 
> before going to all that trouble, I thought I would toss the question 
> out to the list, and see if anyone else has encountered this, and what 
> you did to fix it.  Any thoughts?
>
> thanks
>
> Mike Spalding
>
>
>
>