Nobody Knows the Treble I've Seen ...

[Susan Kline]

At 05:30 PM 7/28/2005 -0500, Alan wrote:
>New Yamaha GA-1 (yurk): In addition to low treble from hell, the 6th and 
>7th octaves are just screechers, wild and wooley. On the spectrograph, 
>some of the individual strings have about 8 peaks each!

Ah, but are they woolly? Or are they hardened within an inch of their lives?

If you have permission to voice this Yamaha GA-1 (yurk) piano, and the 
owner agrees that the treble is way too screechy, (some owners are deaf -- 
they might even like it) you might try what I do (given permission, etc.) 
Pull out the little action, and give the top octave one small drop of vodka 
directly into the grooves. I think you'll find the 8 peaks getting less 
high and steep. Maybe you'll end up with 6 peaks, or 4, or something. I've 
never metered the results except with my ears.

Too little felt to needle up there, and anyway, it's all solid as a rock. 
Vodka never broke a fiber yet. Besides, some owners enjoy the jokes. "Your 
piano is just too _dry_. It needs a drink ..." etc. However, in the high 
treble, it doesn't need a BIG drink, and it shouldn't get into the habit of 
drinking.

In octave 6, I'm more likely to work on the duplex (a little strip of 
bushing cloth, a dab of gaffer's tape, even a drop of white glue ...) with 
maybe a chopstick needle on a few string grooves, and a whole heap of 
tweaking and beating in the unisons. But octave 7 usually carries a lot 
more lacquer or *whatever it is.*

Wearing alcohol-proof flamesuit ... thanks, Conrad, nice up to date fashion 
statement ...

Susan