Ron, et al, Thanks for responding. Actually, to be honest, I was there just to tune, I saw such extensive bending on such a nice "looking" piano that sounded so bad, that I attributed at least most of the problems (twangyness, false beats, etc) to the strings. The string leveling is not great and the hammers aren't perfect, but not unusual. The bends were unusual and I've heard so many like them that "twanged" that I made a general assumption/assessment %~). The stringing may not be factory. Coils vary from 2-4 wraps, height varies by 1/8", torque varies quite a bit, too. I know it's worth fixing, just wanted opinions on the effects of bent wire. I've never massaged wire, but will try the bridge pins/capo noise upon further examination. I guess a general twang was more prevalent than actual beats in the individual wire. Any other help is appreciated. Thanks, Lance Lafargue, RPT Mandeville, LA New Orleans Chapter, PTG lancelafargue@bellsouth.net -----Original Message----- From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2001 9:57 PM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Re: Opinions Please >1)In your opinions, do kinked, dented, or bent (depending on what you want >to call them) wire in the speaking length section near the agraffes and >V-bar of a piano affect the piano's sound i.e., false beats? I suppose it's possible, but unlikely. Kinks in strings in the middle to low tenor can make false beats, but in the capo sections, it's usually loose bridge pins. Squalls, squeals, shrieks, whistles and odd doink noises are usually the front duplex. >2)Does it affect the pianos tunability or the ability to tune good unisons? The kinks don't, but the noises do, whatever is causing them. >3)Would you say that a Steinway D, 5 years old with this condition >throughout the tenor and lower treble is less desirable than one without the >condition? Certainly, but a five year old D without the noises can very easily become a six year old D with the noises, so it's sort of an indistinct point. Noisy or not, it has potential and is worth fixing. >4)Can this condition be _eliminated_ by any method short of restringing? > Thanks for your experienced opinions! > >Lance Lafargue, RPT Possibly. I'd guess that the strings were kinked up by someone attempting to make noises go away in the first place and trying everything they could think of in the attempt. By all means give the warranty a try and see if you can get any help, but I'm afraid the kinked strings will shut that door, since that's not factory damage, even if that's not the problem. I wouldn't expect massaging the strings to help because I don't think that's the source of the false beats. Did you assume the string kinks were causing the noises or did you try any of the usual non-destructive diagnosis techniques like pressing against the side of the front bridge pin of a noisy string while playing the note and seeing if the false beat went away? Did you try putting a fingertip on the front duplex of a noisy string - etc? If the problem is loose bridge pins, CAing them will very likely clean up nearly all the noises in spite of kinks in the string. Try the easy and likely stuff first, then fall back on the expensive fixes if you don't get lucky. Ron N
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