Hello folks, I need some sage advice (or best guesses) from the Steinway guru's. Steinway L, #498954, previously serviced several times, the last time being 12/05/03. A pitch adjustment of 9 cents was done. The environment at that time was temperature of 67 and RH at 35%. These values are quite consistent over the four calls since getting the client, with the exception of the slight pitch raise. The day -after- the last tuning, I got a call that the piano was making strange noises. Since I was across the street with another client at the time, a return call was easily done. The client admitted that he had played the piano after the tuning, and everything was fine. The next day, the noises began. Figuring a paper clip, lamp rattle, forgotten tool (me?), etc., I assumed it would be a straight in/out deal. No such luck. In octaves 5~6 (crossing the scale break) there is an obnoxious sound on certain notes. It requires at least a medium to mf blow to generate the sound, and that sound could best be described as a "grunt". The last time I heard this characteristic sound was on a vertical, whose soundboard was lose from the liner. Cursory checks (including crawling under and scraping wood shards and glue sizing from the soundboard perimeter) did nothing. Ditto touching things... well, I won't go into an entire check list. Further inspection topside revealed that the nose bolt for the bass/tenor strut seemed to be touching the cutout in the soundboard. Unfortunately, this was only a visual thing since I didn't have any type of feeler to verify this from above or below. The bolt also seemed to be leaning, with a rake slightly toward the player and favoring the bass. I don't normally pay a lot of attention to this type of thing unless there is cause to do so. This was one of those times. I'm open to any, and preferably alternate ideas. However, if this nose bolt is the noise culprit, it generates a bunch of questions for me. Questions like: (1) has it always been that way? (2) why is it leaning (factory expedient via sledge hammer?) (3) could the results of a 9 cent pitch raise cause -just- enough board movement to hit the "magic" spot between board and bolt? (4) how does one "fix" something like this without excessive trauma/expense? (5) is the easy way out (get several bass strings out of the way; file/rasp) a fix or a Band-Aid? Instinct tells me the bolt should be straight and centered. (6) why is the noise generated by higher frequencies? (this one is more or less rhetorical) I reluctantly admitted to the client that I was out of ammunition at the time, but am scheduled for another call soon. Since I've heard nothing more from the client, I'd like to think that whatever caused the problem has gone away as mysteriously as it appeared! Either way, I need to be prepared to do... something. -- Regards, Jim mailto:harvey@greenwood.net
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