Avery, I've experienced the exact same thing. Turned out residue between string and capo were responsible, and I had to loosen the string enough to get a damp cloth between string and capo to clean before I finally solved the problem. Amazingly dead notes (their were three in a row). And no visible residue anywhere (if the customer hadn't told me there was a spill, I'd still be there trying to figure it out <g>). But B flat2? That's a wound string through an agraffe, no? Still, might be worth while lowering tension considerably, and cleaning the best you can. Liquids can wick into small spaces, and I guess residue in an agraffe hole could maybe cause that much havoc. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico Avery Todd wrote: > > Hi list, > > Got a question for you. I was tuning a Kawai RX-6 (7') this > morning and the first time I played Bb2, it sounded almost > completely dead. It was so obvious that "what the h*** just > popped out. :-) It has the sort of sound that a hammer makes > when the felt has come unglued from one side. Much softer and > deader than the notes around it. > > There's evidence of a spill of something sticky, like coke, > on the plate in the two middle sections. There's still some > residue there and the plate bushings are all a grayish color. > For the rest of the piano, the bushings are the normal wood > color. There's no evidence anything got into the action except > for 3-4 keys that have a dried liquid stain on them. > > The hammer is not the problem. I lifted the damper and plucked > the strings and got the same dead type sound. I even pulled the > action to look closer at the hammer. There's also no evidence > of any problem at the bridge. Strangely, there's also no > evidence of anything on the wire or felt under the strings by > the tuning pins of that particular note, although there is on > some others. > > My question is why would only that one note sound that way if > indeed, the spill is responsible? > > Any other thoughts about why? > > The piano will have very heavy use for the next 3 weeks, until > juries are over, so so it would be very difficult to find time > to do much of anything except restring that particular note. > But with all the recitals going on, I really don't want to even > do that right now. > > Thanks for any ideas any of you might have. > > Regards, > Avery > University of Houston > > P.S. Have you ever noticed that when the words "The IRS" are > combined, it spells "Theirs"? Just thought I'd throw that in on > this fateful day!
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