Tuning a 1996 S&S M today I noticed many prominent false beats in the hi-treble section. The lower half of this section had lots of clear beating false beats. The upper half had what I call cymbal-tone syndrome. Presumed false beats are so fast that it just sounds like a cymbal being hit. Thinking of loose bridge pins, I immediately got out my trusty little brass rod and put into combination handle. Isolate falsely beating string. Gently place rod on top of bridge pin (just the weight of rod & handle and maybe just a little pressure - but VERY lightly). False beat does not go away, but tone dies out real fast, like the string was poorly muted. Press on string immediately in back of front bridge pin - no effect (unless you press REAL hard, then tone dies a bit because you are pressing hard enough to affect soundboard's ability to vibrate), press light or hard on rear bridge pin, no effect. Tried this on a number of bad strings. Same thing. Press on front pin, false beat remains AND string is somewhat muted, press on other areas of bridge and no effect. So what to do? I seated all strings in this section to the bridge. By hand only, I tapped brass rod in combination handle on strings between pins, ran the notched brass rod back and forth along speaking length while applying pressure, and then tapped on both sides of pins (kinda angling the string into the pin/bridge angle). Test strings. False beats pretty well eliminated in lower half of section. Cymbal-tones still present in upper half. So what happened in the lower half of this section? Why did just touching (super-duper lightly only) the forward bridge pins cause the strings to mute out? On the Boston that I posted on recently, as well as many other pianos, you hear a false beat and when you press gently on loose bridge pin, false beat is eliminated AND tone remains clear and un-muted. as this a case of only string seating being needed? Or are there loose bridge pins, and jamming the strings into the little corner of the bridge pin and bridge just stabilize the loose bridge pin? Obviously, we'll see over time. I'm gonna watch this one closely. I'm really trying to understand the causes of so much garbage sounds that emanate from the high treble of pianos (er, a, well thinking of some other pianos, I guess anywhere on the scale!). Any thoughts on this situation? Terry Farrell Piano Tuning & Service Tampa, Florida mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC