Dead Note

Avery Todd atodd@UH.EDU
Mon Apr 15 12:06 MDT 2002


Thanks. That's two now that have suggested this. I'll admit that this
hadn't occurred to me. Worth a try. Thanks.

Avery

>I had a similar problem on a Kawai RX-3 (not that it has anything to do
>with Kawais in general). Some Coke had been spilled in the agraffe and
>dried there, effectively deadening the string. You couldn't see the dried
>Coke in there, and it doesn't take much to cause this problem. The
>strings have to be removed from the agraffes and the agraffes and strings
>must be cleaned. Hope this helps,
>Jonathan Edwards
>Emory University Technician
>
>On Mon, 15 Apr 2002 09:19:22 -0500 Avery Todd <atodd@UH.EDU> writes:
>>  Hi list,
>>
>>  Got a question for you. I was tuning a Kawai RX-6 (7') this
>>  morning and the first time I played Bb2, it sounded almost
>>  completely dead. It was so obvious that "what the h*** just
>>  popped out. :-) It has the sort of sound that a hammer makes
>>  when the felt has come unglued from one side. Much softer and
>>  deader than the notes around it.
>>
>>  There's evidence of a spill of something sticky, like coke,
>>  on the plate in the two middle sections. There's still some
>>  residue there and the plate bushings are all a grayish color.
>>  For the rest of the piano, the bushings are the normal wood
>>  color. There's no evidence anything got into the action except
>>  for 3-4 keys that have a dried liquid stain on them.
>>
>>  The hammer is not the problem. I lifted the damper and plucked
>>  the strings and got the same dead type sound. I even pulled the
>>  action to look closer at the hammer. There's also no evidence
>>  of any problem at the bridge. Strangely, there's also no
>>  evidence of anything on the wire or felt under the strings by
>>  the tuning pins of that particular note, although there is on
>>  some others.
>>
>>  My question is why would only that one note sound that way if
>>  indeed, the spill is responsible?
>>
>>  Any other thoughts about why?
>>
>>  The piano will have very heavy use for the next 3 weeks, until
>>  juries are over, so so it would be very difficult to find time
>>  to do much of anything except restring that particular note.
>>  But with all the recitals going on, I really don't want to even
>>  do that right now.
>>
>>  Thanks for any ideas any of you might have.
>>
>>  Regards,
>>  Avery
>>  University of Houston
>>
>>  P.S. Have you ever noticed that when the words "The IRS" are
>>  combined, it spells "Theirs"? Just thought I'd throw that in on
>>  this fateful day!



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