The 'creek' that won't go away

[Clyde Hollinger]

Phil,

I'm glad you posted this problem, because I've never run into the keybed causing
a creak.  It gives me one more place to look for those elusive noises that drive
me nuts.

I don't know the answer to your question below, but I will give you my best
guess.  As an illustration, think of petting a dog that has short wiry hair on
its back.  If you stroke the dog one way, your hand goes over the hair
smoothly.  If you stroke it the opposite way, an entirely different sensation.

Somewhere along the crack the wood is not completely separated.  The wood grain
may be oriented in such a way that it glides noiselessly in the one direction
but in the other direction it "catches," similar to the dog illustration above.
The obvious difference is that with the dog you're dealing with the sense of
touch, while with the piano you're dealing with the sense of hearing.

Regards,
Clyde

Phil Bondi wrote:

> ...what I found was that the key bed has a crack in it on the
> treble side on the bottom of the bed. When I hold the keybed with one hand
> and work the pedal with the other, the cre(a)k goes away..when I stand at
> the piano and depress the pedal, the cre(a)k re-appears.
>
> Now that you have correctly identified the culprit, can you tell me why this
> noise only appears as the pedal goes back to its rest position and not when
> it is engaged, or even held down?..it ONLY happens when the pedal is on its
> way back to rest.