Damper sizzle

[Michael J. Wathen]

I'm sure that this has been discussed before and perhaps someone can point
me in the right direction.

Pianist complains of damper sizzle that occurs only when using the soft pedal.

Here is what I confirmed.  

I can play soft with <NO> una corda pedal, release the key slowing and I
will barely be able hear the damper sizzle.

I can do the same <WITH> the una corda pedal and I get significant sizzle
regardless of how fast I release the key.

I can do the same <WITH> the una corda pedal, release the pedal while the
note is still depressed, then release the note and I still get significant
damper sizzle.

This is occurring on a well maintained Steinway D that has never been
restrung and the dampers are original.  It is most noticeable in the F2 -
F4 range.  Half of this range has trichord dampers front and back the other
half has trichord only on the front side of the damper head.

I finally, told the pianist that there are no quick fixes and suggested
that she may mitigate the sizzle effect somewhat by releasing the key faster.

My suspicion is that when only two strings of a three string unison is
engaged by the hammer the motion of the un struck string is mostly in the
plane parallel to the surface of the soundboard.  I suppose that I could
verify this by replacing the trichord felt to a bichord felt with a little
sidecar.  What do you think?


|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Michael J. Wathen				Email: michael.wathen@uc.edu
College-Conservatory of Music		tel: 513 556-9565
University of Cincinnati			Visit The Piano Technicians Web Page, 
Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0096			to request service click below or visit 
		    				http://www.uc.edu/~wathenmj/piano.htm