<html> Hi Tony,              Is the board flat? take a piece of string and check from underneath. also check the bearing.  If you have good sustain by plucking, probably not the board. If the sustain is poor, investigate the board, ribs and liner very closely.  A loose glue joint at the rim or belly rail can cause this problem.  Loose bridge pins will also greatly reduce power, drop the tension of one of the worse strings and pull a pin, swab the hole with a little epoxy or medium CA , look for the improvement. If the sustain is good by plucking, check the strike line. reshaping the hammers may help. Are the hammers over centreing? Just some food for thought. Regards Roger At 05:34 PM 4/15/01 +0930, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>Hi List, There are some of you out there that would know the answer to this problem. Need help. Steinway D model, about 18 years old. This piano has always had a problem in the treble from about F5 to B6.  Tone is hard and sustain is short. Over the years I have tried voicing the hammers and can balance the tone, but, to the expense of the sustain, this drops of even more. Today I had a note left by the visiting European pianist,  Michael Leuschner (prior to my visit) asking that I voice the treble, especially between B & B. "The sound is hard and doesn't last long enough" B6 isn't bad. I needled the surface area to even out the tone through this area and the pianist was happy with the result (needs this area as he is playing Mozart & Chopin) but, I really want to fix this problem and because I now have a note from the 'teacher' I have an excuse to fix it. What is the problem ?  I have my thoughts but I only work on 1 Steinway, some one must know what is causing this to happen. Regards Tony Caught ICPTG Australia <a href="mailto:caute@optusnet.com.au">caute@optusnet.com.au</a> </blockquote> </html>