<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Verdana" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Verdana color=#000000 size=3> <DIV>List,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm scratching my head at this one.  I tuned a BB today that is ar= ound 3 years out of the factory.  As I tuned the temperament, I found that t= he middle string on several notes from middle C down towards the tenor have virtually no sustain.  I thought it was damper "drag"(for lack of a bet= ter term).  Pulled the dampers out of the way, no change.  Second thou= ght was over-needled hammers.  I plucked the strings. The sound still died after a couple of seconds.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I thought it might be bad strings, but in most, if not all of the notes= , it was only the center string that was not sustaining.  These are not individually looped strings, and the other half of the strings sounded just fine.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I didn't alarm the customer, I just told her that there were some notes= that sounded kind of dead to me that I wanted to address at the next appointment.  They've had no complaints, because there was enough sound= when the outside strings weren't muted to negate the deadened strings--unles= s, of course, you were listening for it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I seated and lifted strings, and attempted to get clean termination poi= nts, all to no avail.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There seems to be adequate downbearing, and odds are, negative or inadequate downbearing would affect all the strings of a unison, no?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any suggestions are welcomed!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Dave Stahl</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>