Follow up on "brush noise" on dampers lifting.
Yesterday I saw this piano for routine tuning and had a chance to work on the "swishing" noise when the damper pedal was depressed. When just a short section of dampers were blocked using the Sustenuto pedal, the amount of "swishing" noise was reduced. I did retreat the felt in the damper lift tray with "Protek" and could tell the capstan screws were quiet. Using "Protek", I treated the top and bottom of the damper guide rail bushing and finally cleared the problem. Now all you hear is the "normal" sound of the dampers lifting from the strings. Thanks to Paul Bruesch for his comments.
Ken Gerler
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken & Pat Gerler
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Another Damper Puzzler
Paul,
I didn't note that, but I did lift a "gang" of damper without moving the damper lift tray and they were all quiet (I did "Protek" the guide rail bushing first thinking that was were the problem was located).
Ken Gerler
St. Louis, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: paul bruesch
To: Ken & Pat Gerler ; pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 4:49 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Another Damper Puzzler
Are you certain it's not guide rail bushings? That's what caused a very similar-sounding noise in a Chinese Falcone I attended to today.
I originally thought the tray felt, too... manually lifting the tray (eliminating pedal-thru-pitman) and still resulted in noise. Lifted as many dampers as possible at the spoons and it was still there, so bingo!
Just a thought...
Paul Bruesch
Stillwater, MN
On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Ken & Pat Gerler <kenneth.gerler at prodigy.net> wrote:
Hello all,
I already ran this by Mark Wisner and he has never had a complaint like this -- It is RX-2G (5'10") grand. And if everything is quiet, slowly pushing down on the damper pedal, it sounds like you are slowly running a brush across the top of a snare drum. I have isolated it to the junction between the under lever "capstan" screw and the damper lift tray felt. The sound is not there if the damper are held up with the sustenuto pedal.
I put "Protek" on the felt - no change; I put teflon powder on the felt - no change. Mark and I discussed using a leather burnisher on the head on the capstan screws (but I didn't have that with me try).
Anyone else ever run into this? In 40 years, it is the first time (that I can remember) I have ever run into it. I have had the problem between the key capstan and the whippen felt and been able to resolve it with the above products.
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