Greetings all -- After 11 years of complete non-use I was called in to tune a 1966 Hamilton (by Baldwin) console so the young daughter could start taking lessons. Then, after about six weeks, I was called back to investigate a buzz, or rattle, that had started since that first visit. What I found was the right string of C4 sounding like a paperclip had been wrapped around it. What I discovered was that the bottom bridge pin on that string had worked its way out far enough that there was no longer any bend in the string across the bridge and therefore no termination. The string was rattling against the top bridge pin. The bridge around many of the bridge pins showed signs of a previous tuner aggressively seating the strings. This particular string even showed nicks in the wire so I guess this is not a new problem for this piano. I also noticed that many of the strings are going across the bridge with bridge pins in such a straight line that I'm surprised that other notes are not also exhibiting the same problem. Anyway, I took a screwdriver and tried to see if I could even move the problem pin, or perhaps even re-seat it a bit. The bridge pins on C4 happen to be directly behind a plate strut so access was NOT easy. But a little leverage and POP, the pin just popped back into its socket and the buzzing went away. But it shouldn't have because there was still no tension of the string across the top bridge pin. What had happened was that putting the pin back in place had somehow moved the top of the string just enough so that the hammer was no longer striking it. At which point I remembered that when I first tuned this piano I found a good 10 or 15 notes with hammers not striking the right string. Time and budget prevented me from correcting that problem and I wound up just plucking the right strings to get the unisons in. C4 was apparently one of those notes, and now that the piano was actually being played the bridge pin for the right string had worked its way out enough to cause this problem. So, today's question: The bottom bridge pin for the right string of C4 is still technically loose and sitting in a very worn hole so this problem will return. It's the only pin that is showing this problem but, except for the previous technicians abuse, the bridge looks pretty good. No noticeable cracks or anything. Just this one very worn hole. I'm looking for recommendations on how to repair this one pin so that I can then go in and correct some of the regulation problems. I look forward to your comments. -- Geoff . Geoff Sykes, RPT . 626-799-7545 . www.ivories52.com <http://www.ivories52.com/> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.375 / Virus Database: 270.12.83/2191 - Release Date: 06/21/09 05:53:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090621/33eafe34/attachment.htm>
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