<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Hi I would tend to agree with both of Dougs points here. I dont think friction at or close to the agraffe gets into this picture... tho increased friction may have some influence on how the string renders over the felted area... still thats something else.  From the capo discussions dealing with the front duplex subject, we have heard many times that some combinations of lengths and offset angles for this front string segment will start causing noise. Off hand it would seem to me that an agraffe would be more susceptible to this kind of problem then the capo bar.  I would tend to want to keep the distance between the string bearing on the felt and the agraffe pretty short. Cheers RicB <blockquote> Doug Wood writes: 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. Doug </blockquote> On May 17, 2007, at 4:46 PM, Jon Page wrote in reply to: <blockquote> <blockquote>>> Doug Wood writes: > >the back side of this (closest to the agraffe) needs to be high  enough that you > >cannot get your fingernail between the strings and the cloth. It does seem > >to me that those pianos that do not meet this criterion tend to have > >more agraffe noise in an unpleasant way. </blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote> > The two I've done so far have had no problems but that's not a   large sampling. > But I don't see the advantage to a friction point so close to the   agraffe. > -- > > Regards, > > Jon Page</blockquote> </body> </html>