Sources of "falseness"

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

H'mm.  I hadn't thought of that.
This one is beginning to get a few spots of rust here and 
there.  I've talked them into putting a climate controlled closet in 
the budget negotiations.  For the time being I'm pushing for an 
Edward's string-cover.  They do have a DC dehumidifier system 
underneath.  I worked over the strings with a steel 
"beat-suppressor"  I don't remember there being much friction.  But 
that is a good one to file away for the older pianos...
Humidity here is often over 60%, I got readings of 72% at the university.

Andrew Anderson

At 05:23 PM 11/6/2005, you wrote:
>Hi Andrew,
>Did you mention rust nodes. Some times the wild string can be cleaned a
>little with my
>#315 brass string seater, by gently massaging the string until it feels
>smooth as you rub the wire.
>Joe Goss RPT
>Mother Goose Tools
>imatunr@srvinet.com
>www.mothergoosetools.com
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Andrew and Rebeca Anderson" <anrebe@sbcglobal.net>
>To: <joegarrett@earthlink.net>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 2:28 PM
>Subject: Sources of "falseness"
>
>
> > I have a Steinway D in my client inventory that I've just finished a
> > third tuning service+ on.  It was some fourty cents low when I first
> > encountered it.  The client wants this piano to be kept in premium
> > condition from now on for his performance venue.
> >
> > No note was more than three cents (A4) out when I measured it this
> > time so it is settling down, somewhat.  I decided to do a little
> > maintenance on the piano/string voicing side.  This involved
> > tightening loops at the hitch-pins, straightening the path from the
> > hitch-pin to the bridge pin (surprising how many clicked over into
> > place), seating from front to back on the rear duplex, light seating
> > at the back of the bridge, seating via use of a beat-suppressor on
> > the front side (no tapping).  The pitch dropped, as expected, from
> > three to sixteen cents.  I then did an over-pull
> > pitch-correction.  This is followed by seating the wire at the front
> > duplex, then lifting in front of the capo and then on the back-side
> > of the capo.
> >
> > After this I fine tuned the instrument.  String noise was greatly
> > reduced but still persisted in the mid treble on some strings.  I
> > tried holding something heavy against the front and back bridge pins
> > and the beating/noise was reduced but not eliminated.  I tried
> > driving the bridge pins a little.  There was some improvement.  (BTW,
> > why does Steinway have to grind those pins flat?  It makes it hard to
> > drive them without risking putting more torque off the driving axis
> > stressing the hole.)
> >
> > So, I want to list all possible culprits for future investigation.
> > Previous over aggressive string-seating.  (some areas look like the
> > string was crushed down into the bridge)
> > Loose bridge pins
> > Kink in wire at front bridge pin pulled into speaking length (should
> > stretch out between tuning intervals?)
> > Poorly shaped or too-soft & cut-up capo d'astro bar
> > Scaling interference noise (choice of speaking length, node etc.)
> > Sympathetic beats from undamped duplexes elsewhere in the piano
> > Mis-shaped hammers
> >
> > Did I miss anything?  How do you distinguish between the various
> > sources?  What are your favorite solutions?
> >
> > Does anyone have favorite methods to fix crushed bridge capping?  I
> > used CA on bridge pins that had cracks on either side of them on a DH
> > Baldwin.  I think it kind of worked to fill in some surfaces under
> > the strings too.  Did this about a year ago, still going fine, and
>going...?
> >
> > How about loose bridge pins?  Is it preferable to go up a size?  Or
> > is it better to inject epoxy and re-insert?  I've used ultra thin CA
> > glue on an older DH Baldwin grand that had grain parallel to the
> > bridge pin torque and there were cracks on either side.  It worked
> > fairly well.  I'm monitoring for long term results.
> >
> > Kink in the wire?  I stretched everything with a beat suppressor.  I
> > can't think of anything but time here.
> >
> > Capo problems?  Excess paint and filler here can make noise.  Filing
> > that off helps.  Poor shape, grooving, a dremel with a long stone
> > bit works fairly well.  More ideas, cautions?
> >
> > Scaling problems?  Hammer shape/position might help.  Pitch-Lock
> > clamps may reduce the noise.
> >
> > Sympathetic beats in the duplexes?  Long "bean-bags" such as Spurlock
> > uses for damper work might help to eliminate this while tuning.  I'm
> > guessing the Steinway duplexes don't slide around to permit tuning.
> >
> > Poorly mated hammers?  Check and re-shape.  Joe's hammer shaping tool
> > is cool!  I used it on a Wurlitzer studio piano that needed
> > help.  It was fast reshaping the hammers and fast to mate them to
> > the strings.  Amazing what that did to the sound.
> >
> > Other ideas, observations, cautions etc. WELCOME ;-)
> >
> > Andrew Anderson
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives