The 'creak' that won't go away

[Clyde Hollinger]

Phil,

First of all, I assume we are talking about a creak.  A creek is a stream
smaller than a river.

One possibility is loose bottom board screws (the board on which the trapwork is
mounted).  A second is movement between one or more of the action support bolts
and the action brackets resting on them.  A third is movement of a case part
when the sustain pedal is engaged (or, in this case, disengaged).  I once found
the pedal rail (bottom rail) making a creak, and a couple times the bottom panel
against the sides.  But I doubt if it was the bottom panel on a piano this old.
It's more of a problem on pianos with polyester finishes.

Regards,
Clyde

Phil Bondi wrote:

> I had one today that I thought I'd share here.
>
> A 1920 Marshall And Wendell Upright.
>
> Everytime the damper pedal would make its way back to its 'rest' position',
> you could hear a 'creek' coming from somewhere.
>
> The linkage involved to make the dampers lift are pretty typical for an
> upright of this vintage..nothing fancy..very functional.
>
> The customer's previous tech told her that he could not fix the problem, but
> did not tell her what the problem was. Today, I believe I found the problem,
> and it doesn't involve any linkage with the damper pedal system.
>
> What I did today was take it all apart..replaced the leaf spring..applied
> Teflon to the rod guides(there are 2 of them on the bottom board), and added
> Teflon to the wooden rod guide that is attached to the inside wall of the
> side panel..removed old felt from the top of the wooden rod and replaced it
> with a new piece(possible 'creek' source, but not)..pulled the action, and
> lubricated the damper lift rod thingees(there were 4 of them)..now I knew
> that the 'creek' wasn't coming from these thingees, but what the heck..I was
> going this far, I might as well go all the way.
>
> Still stumped as to where the 'creek' is coming from?
>
> Remember..the 'creek' only happened when the damper pedal was going back to
> its rest position..why this 'creek' didn't 'creek' when the pedal was
> engaging the dampers is beyond me, but I still feel the problem was
> found..but not fully understood why.
>
> Your mission, is to try and figure out where the 'creek' is coming from and
>
> why it only happened when the pedal was on its way back to rest.
>
> The 'creek' was not coming from any part of the damper pedal linkage and
>
> There is a DC installed..noise is not coming from there..but that's your
> only hint.
>
> have fun,
> Phil