Last month I tuned a mid 70's S&S M That had something similar. The only way I though to express it was "ghost wolf". Maybe the bridge pins are loose. Very annoying. Jon Page At 06:48 PM 3/6/99 -0500, you wrote: >Hi All, > >I've run into a customer who has noticed a problem with his Boston >piano. It's a 6'4" grand. Playing softly, the tone is good. But on >louder playing, and rapid repeated playing of particular notes, there >comes an irritating sound from the speaking length of the string. To my >ear, it sounds like the string is being 'overexcited', or overdriven, >beyond the point of a clear undistorted vibration. Kind of reminds me >of what happens when you overdrive an amplifier and hear the sound >distort. On the piano it tends to sound like a zing/ring. (This is >like trying to tell a person who has never been sighted what a rainbow >looks like!) Upon further examination, I've determined that the 'noise' >is indeed in the speaking length of the string. (Blocking out the >duplex etc. has no real effect.) Also, I've checked on about a half >dozen other pianos for the same thing, all the way from Young Chang, to >Wurlitzer & Baldwin, to Petrof and Steinway. I was actually able to get >the same distortions from ALL of them! The Steinway required the most >effort on my part to make it give off this 'sound', but I was able to >get all of them to do it, and over quite a range. The worst areas on >most all of them was the range starting about an octave above middle C, >and continuing up about an octave and a half, but it was indeed possible >to do this 'overexcitement' over most of the range of the plain wire >strings. > >I've not been able to put my finger on this one. Some thoughts to date >are scattered; hammers are too hard, (voicing seems to help a little, >but it's still there), hammers striking the string in the wrong place, >(haven't been able to play with this one yet), too much bearing, (I'm >not sure how too much or too little bearing would affect distortion of >the sound), poor scale design, (just because it says "Designed by >Steinway", it doesn't necessarily impress me), poor bridge notching, >(the notch does not drop away from the string in such a fashion to give >a good termination point in my opinion, but I don't know what minimums >would be. I know I notch mine a lot more deeply and distinctly when I >do them.) > >I just wondered if anybody had a thought. > >Thanks in advance. (And also, thanks for all the good conversation. I >just found this list a few weeks ago, and am very happy to be able to >read the conversations. I've been learning. (Hope it never ends!) > >Brian Trout >Quarryville, Pa > Jon Page ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not an expert, I just play one on the internet. Dear Lord, So far today I've done all right. I haven't lost my temper. I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. For that I am thankful. But in a few minutes, Lord, I am going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Amen Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Rather like the apprentice polisher who, after a day of working on one piece of wood, asked the old master how he knew when he was finished with a given piece. The answer was: "When they take it away and give me another.")
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