I'm sure that this has been discussed before and perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. Pianist complains of damper sizzle that occurs only when using the soft pedal. Here is what I confirmed. I can play soft with <NO> una corda pedal, release the key slowing and I will barely be able hear the damper sizzle. I can do the same <WITH> the una corda pedal and I get significant sizzle regardless of how fast I release the key. I can do the same <WITH> the una corda pedal, release the pedal while the note is still depressed, then release the note and I still get significant damper sizzle. This is occurring on a well maintained Steinway D that has never been restrung and the dampers are original. It is most noticeable in the F2 - F4 range. Half of this range has trichord dampers front and back the other half has trichord only on the front side of the damper head. I finally, told the pianist that there are no quick fixes and suggested that she may mitigate the sizzle effect somewhat by releasing the key faster. My suspicion is that when only two strings of a three string unison is engaged by the hammer the motion of the un struck string is mostly in the plane parallel to the surface of the soundboard. I suppose that I could verify this by replacing the trichord felt to a bichord felt with a little sidecar. What do you think? ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Michael J. Wathen Email: michael.wathen@uc.edu College-Conservatory of Music tel: 513 556-9565 University of Cincinnati Visit The Piano Technicians Web Page, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0096 to request service click below or visit http://www.uc.edu/~wathenmj/piano.htm
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