Does this piano have a laminated soundboard? Sometimes these can delaminate slightly, giving the effect you have described. Don Mannino ----- Original Message ----- From: Rex Roseman To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 9:22 AM Subject: [pianotech] Buzzing piano puzzler Dear List Need some collective help here. A customer has a Shoniger Console piano that has developed a bad buzzing sound when the notes around C3 and C4 are played. This piano is sitting over the heat/AC vent for the room. I explained that this was a bad idea because of drying and that the buzz was most likely loose soundboard ribs. Diagnosis: The buzz sounded like a loose rib. While playing the notes and pressing on the soundboard from the front, the buzz stopped. During the return service call to fix the ribs, the piano was pulled out from the wall for access. Everything looked tight (ribs to soundboard) and the peripheral soundboard joint looked good. The buzzing could be stopped by placing a wedge between one of the ribs and the back post. Only one rib (passing behind the treble most post) stopped the buzzing sound, so it was thought that this must be the loose rib. However, when that rib was wedged from the back, the buzz moved to the C6 area. Repair attempt: ZAP-A-Gap CA glue was used to reattach the rib to the soundboard by applying glue to the old glue line. The glue never seemed to wick in except for one spot at the bottom of the piano that didn't seem to have anything to do with the buzz. All the ribs were treated because the piano was already cleaned and prepped and just in case the rib that seemed to be the problem was not. As far as I could tell the glue treatment did not work this time. The only thing that stopped the buzz was to place a felt wedge between the harp and the soundboard opposite the rib that seemed to be the problem. When wedged from the front, the buzz did not move up the piano. The wedge was left in, but this is not an acceptable long term solution. Obviously either the problem has been missed diagnosed, the wrong glue used or used the wrong way, or there is something totally different happening here that I have not discovered. Any suggestions of what to look for and what may have gone wrong? Thank you. Rex Roseman -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090630/8952e0b3/attachment-0001.htm>
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