Just tuned a S&S D brought in by the dealership for a Brahms concerto with the symphony. Notes 50,51,52,&53 (last four in agraff section, just above A440) had an unpleasant pronounced THUD when played above forte. This is the same THUD which is always there lurking behind piano tone but usually not dominating it. I checked keyframe front, back, and glides, checked for loose hammers, held up dampers heads by hand and played the note to see if it was a damper problem and it was not, checked damper upstop rail, seated strings on bridge, reshaped hammers to that nice S&S pointy shape, tried needling, tried juicing, switched a couple of hammers from a few notes below where the sound is good just to see if it was a hammer problem and it was not. What have I missed? The one thing I didn't do which might have help diagnose the problem was to pull the action in and out to change the strike point. What do you think? John D. Chapman RPT Wake Forest University Winston-Salem NC
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