bass to treble break problem

[Les Smith]

Gee, Ted, "thunk" is kind of a vague term and you didn't tell us the age
or brand of piano, or even whether the string is wound or not, but a couple
of things immediately come to mind. On some of the junkier modern verticals
the first few strings above the bass break are wound with steel instead of
copper. They sound bad even when new and just get worse as time goes by,
while the copper-wound bass string still sound good. You could try re-
placing those steel-wound strings, if present, but replacing the entire
piano is probably a better idea. The owner probably won't go for that one,
however! The other thing you might want to check is the damper. Perhaps
it's not fully clearing the string because it's lifting too late, or be-
cvause it starting to come unglued. Sometimes a damper will LOOK like it's
lifting OK from the top, but when you remove the block you discover that
it unglued on the bottom, not lifting properly, and still touching the
string. Lastly, since this is the first string on the treble bridge, check
the bridge, too. Occasionally debris can get caught between the string and
the notch in the bridge in an upright piano and affect the tone of the
string involved. I've seen it happen, so it's worth checking out.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net

On Fri, 14 Jun 1996, Ted Simmons wrote:

> I'm fairly new on this listserver and maybe this has been covered before.
> I was wondering if anyone has come up with a solution to correct the
> situation where the first treble string above the bass-to-treble break in
> an upright kind of thunks. It doesn't ring out as clearly as the others
> around it.  Without raising the cover of an upright, I can tell where the
> bass-to-treble break is just by playing the notes.  The "thunk" gives it
> away.  I've called manufacturers and they said that nothing can be done.
> Has anyone attacked this problem and come up with a solution?
>
>    Ted Simmons
>    ted@palmnet.net
>
>
>