<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"> <DIV>It's really funny that you suggest this. I recently had the "opportunity" to sand down a soundboard in preparation for refinishing. It had just received some shims to repair some cracks. Using a small electric palm sander I was able to get into most places, and even relatively close to the edges around the frame. But the job still involved quite a bit of hand sanding in the tight spots. Right after I finished that project I retired my SonicCare electric toothbrush and upgraded to a new Oral-B electric toothbrush. In retrospect of the sanding job I was actually thinking of a way to convert the SonicCare into an electric sander. I'm not sure I'm ready to try it for the first time on dampers, however. Have you actually sanded dampers with an electric toothbrush? Damper pads are pretty fragile.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>-- Geoff Sykes</DIV> <DIV>-- Assoc. Los Angeles</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV></DIV> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>-----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan R. Barnard Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 11:21 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: * Re: Sudden damper buzz syndrome </DIV> Two words: Electric toothbrush. Hint, don't use any toothpaste. Alan Barnard Salem, MO Joshua 24:15 <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px solid; PADDING-TOP: 5px"> <HR> Original message From: "Stephen Papastephanou" <SPAPASTE@COMCAST.NET> To: "Pianotech List" <PIANOTECH@PTG.ORG> Received: 11/19/2006 10:33:08 AM Subject: Re: Sudden damper buzz syndrome I had the exact same experience with a Yamaha C7 and the cure prescribed below cured immediately the problem. S.P. On 11/19/06 12:15 AM, "WilsonianJ@aol.com" <WilsonianJ@aol.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>Dear Geoff, I have a sneaking suspicion that the dampers are "crusty" and are "sizzling" upon contact with the strings.   Your client may have only now noticed after listening more intently to your tuning.   I highly doubt that the issue was caused by your tuning, but your client may believe differently. The quick fix for sizzling dampers is to remove the damper and soften the felt a bit.   It doesn't take much so if you very conservatively scratch the surface of the felt, you should ameliorate the problem.   Roughing up the felt too much will cause leaking dampers. Try it on one or two first to see if that's the problem.    Good luck, Geoff, Jim Wilson, RPT L.A. Chapter In a message dated 11/18/06 7:34:07 PM, thetuner@ivories52.com writes: Greetings all --   Last week I tuned a customers Kawai grand piano. The customer was out of town so he left me a key to his studio. He returned the other day and while he is happy with the tuning and the other repair work I completed he mentioned that all the wound strings are now exhibiting a buzz when the damper comes into contact with the played string. Once the damper has completely engaged the buzzing stops and the strings damp correctly. He says it is objectionably noticeable only on the entire wound bass string section of the piano. This is not something that I noticed while I was there so I'm curios as to your thoughts on what could have caused this and what I might be able to do to affect a timely fix. FWIW, he lives a couple of miles from the beach but has a DC de-humidifier installed. The piano also lives in a small, relatively well sealed but otherwise non-climate controlled garage studio.   -- Geoff Sykes  -- Assoc. Los Angeles. </BLOCKQUOTE> -- </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>