<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Re: [CAUT] from piano technician,Thailand</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> On 12/18/05 10:40 PM, "Timur Rizayev" <ti= mur.daniel@gmail.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>Good day. Congratulations All Marry= Christmas and New Year. I'm Timur Rizayev piano technician of College of Music, Mahidol University,= Thailand. In New University Auditorium has the new Concert Grands "Yama= ha" CHIII S, "Steinway & sons" D and "Fazioli"-= 278. Last Friday and Saturday had the Concert"Thailand Philharmonic Orc= hestra" with Guest Conductor: Claude Villaret and Guest Soloist: Patric= ia Pagny. She played on the Concert Grand "Yamaha" . I determined = the some stick out tones in high treble. I suspect the not so good terminate= d wild strings. I will be try to eliminate those with checking Action Regula= ting and Voicing. Can somebody suggest, where I can find the Action regulati= ng Manual and Voicing Instruction for Concert "Yamaha" CHIII S. Or= it is similar to the "Voicing the Renner Hammer" By Rick L.Baldas= sin. Because I have the several concerts in December and next January with T= PO, our Professors and Guests. Thank you in advance with wishing all best Timur Rizayev Thailand   </BLOCKQUOTE>Hi Timur,     If you are correct that you have “wild string= s” caused by bad termination, it would be best to improve the terminat= ion. First, check to see if the false beats or wildness is caused by a loose= bridge pin. With the other strings of the unison muted, play the note while= holding a solid object against the bridge pin. I use the end of my tuning h= ammer. Or a heavy screwdriver blade. Press straight down, and then press tow= ard the treble and toward the bass. If you are able to make the false beat o= r wildness disappear doing one of these things, the bridge pin is loose. In = my opinion, the best cure is to apply a small amount of thin CA glue to the = base of the pin, on the bridge top, in the corner between the string and the= pin. Apply carefully, so it doesn’t run all over – just a tiny = drop. Blowing on it will help set the glue faster, but in any case it may ta= ke a few minutes to have an effect. Sometimes a second application is needed= . Another possibility is to tap down the bridge pin. This will often help, b= ut usually isn’t permanent. I prefer to apply CA.     Sometimes there is a termination problem on the cap= o side, caused by a little metal shaving or some rust, but this is not too c= ommon with Yamahas. You can find out by pressing a screwdriver blade on the = string ahead of the capo and playing the note. If the objectionable sound di= sappears, and comes back when you remove the screwdriver blade, then this is= where the problem is. You can usually eliminate the noise by shifting the s= tring along the capo in each direction. I like to do this by getting a screw= driver blade into the gap between the capo and the string, on the tuning pin= side, with a corner of the blade on the string I want to shift. Then I twis= t the blade, prying the string downward and to the side. It’s easier t= o show than to describe. With this method, you can move the string a tiny am= ount in each direction, sliding it along the capo, which should move the rus= t or shaving off to one side. Putting a blade against the string from the to= p and tapping to one side and the other will work also, but I think it may c= ause more wear to the capo, and create more tiny metal shavings.     It may also be that there are other causes for the = sound that is objectionable. The most likely is strings that are unlevel and= /or not mated to the hammer surface. To find out, press the hammer against t= he string (you can pull it up using a hook which has grabbed the shank, but = it is better to push up from below, pushing up on the wippen while keeping t= he jack from tripping. One good way is to put a strip of thin cloth between = the jacks/repetitions and the knuckles, and then sliding the action and keys= back in the piano. so that you can make the hammers block on the strings by= pressing on the keys). With the hammer pressed against the string – n= ot pressed really hard, but solidly – pluck each string with a sharpen= ed hammershank or a piece of music wire. If one of them is “open&#8221= ; (not muted by the hammer felt), that means it is higher than the others. Y= ou probably can’t make it go down, so you will have to pull the other = strings up to the same level, using a string hook, pulling up on the string = right in front of the capo.     You can make a string hook for this using a dowel a= nd a piece of music wire. Make a short, sharp bend in the end of the wire. T= hen wrap the other end of the wire around the dowel two times and then aroun= d the wire – like you are making a hitch pin loop for a treble string = on a Steinway (I don’t remember off hand if the Yamaha concert grand h= as one).     The other way is to mate the hammer to the string, = by sanding a bit of felt from the hammer where it meets the low strings.     Probably these procedures are described in Baldassi= n’s booklet. The sound of a badly mated hammer – where there is = one or more open string when the hammer is pressed against the string &#8211= ; has a kind of metallic zing in it, which will make that note sound differe= nt from its neighbors. The voicing procedures described by Baldassin are ver= y similar to the ones used by Yamaha technicians. It could be that, in some = cases, sticking needles in some of the hammers is what is needed.     I hope this is of some help. It sounds like you hav= e a busy concert schedule! Best wishes, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico </BODY> </HTML>