Hi Barbara Nice pics A few things strike me right off. First, tho the picture perhaps doesnt clearly show this it appears that the capo surface is far more rounded and certainly wider then what I would associate with a 0.5 mm wide classic V profile. Ed McMorrow makes a very good argumentation about buzzing and string grooves and in my experience his opinions hold true. A string groove does not neccessarilly cause buzzing according to this thinking. It depends largely on the kind of grooving evident, the profile and width of this, and the hardness of the capo surface. A wide rounded and very hard will certainly experience grooving sooner or later and will contribute to significant string noise no matter what you do when it does. I've been carefully filing to 0.5 mm for 20 years now and making sure I do not touch the surface area. That actually leaves some of the old grooving, yet the sound always comes out clean as a whistle. Another thing thats obvious is that the deflection angle upwards can not possibly be too slight as some speculated about before the pictures were available. The Seiler we have was the same, a wide rounded profile with a steep counterbearing angle. Another bit left undealt with here in relation to front duplex noise is the frequency of the length relative to the fundemental of the speaking length. Again I recommend reading McMorrow and relevant parts of the 5 lectures. Detuning to non-harmonic frequencies makes a very big difference. I think its important to remember that tho Steinway uses a fairly long front duplex, it is because when this is functioning optimally the contribution to the overall sound picture that results is considered by very many to be pleasing. It is certainly what Steinway wants. Others manufactures have tried other solutions. Most notably Bechstein (one of my personal favorites btw). The sound of Bechstein is very different of course... and what any given person prefers is a personal matter IMB. This is not to say that the Steinway approach, and similiar ones are not problem free. But the front length can be optimalized to do the job it was designed to do. I would suggest loosening the strings of the offending area, moving them out of the way and filing the capo as per McMorrows advice and see if that solves your problem. Its quick and easy and preclude any of the other solutions presented should you decide to opt for any of them later. I would also suggest making sure the duplex length is detuned as well. Detuning this front duplex (should it be necessarry) might be a bit of a task... but you are up to it ! :) Cheers RicB
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