<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">I believe it is about clamping/damping the string close to the agraffe. The distance can make a difference. There is a local tech who likes to put a brass rod under the strings at about 3/8 to 1/2 inch from the agraffes when restringing. I had a customer with one of these pianos who was VERY displeased with the sibilance this produced, so after setting everything else up as well as I could (regulating, voicing, etc.) I still got to extract the rod. Fun. But the customer was much happier. My impression was that having that whole section undamped made far more difference than I'd guessed based on just one note. But do listen to individual notes with and without your finger pressing close to the agraffe for the general effect.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Doug</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 17, 2007, at 4:46 PM, Jon Page wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>><FONT face="Arial" color="#000000"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">the back side of this (closest to the agraffe) needs to be high enough that you</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" color="#000000"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">>cannot get your fingernail between the strings and the cloth. It does seem </SPAN><BR style="font-family: Arial; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">>to me that those pianos that do not meet this criterion tend to have </SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" color="#000000"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">>more agraffe noise in an unpleasant way.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><BR></DIV><DIV>The two I've done so far have had no problems but that's not a large sampling.</DIV><DIV>But I don't see the advantage to a friction point so close to the agraffe.</DIV><X-SIGSEP><PRE style="white-space: pre; ">--
</PRE></X-SIGSEP><DIV><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Jon Page</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>