Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum a curious buzz-- related to damper pedal

Hi folks,

I have a 2010 190 Estonia, which I'm very happy with. For the last year, I've been plagued on and off by a particular buzz. It comes for five days, leaves for two months. Never been around when my tech has been here (of course ). I know that it could be almost anything, and there's little that can be diagnosed from a description. But I thought its connection to the damper pedal was curious; wondering if anyone has any thoughts. The facts of the case:

-- Only buzzes when the damper pedal is depressed part-way. That is, there is no buzz if the pedal is not used, and no buzz if the pedal is pressed all the way down. Sometimes, it buzzes when the pedal is anywhere in between unpressed and 99% down; sometimes, it only buzzes when the pedal is depressed a tiny bit.

-- Buzz occurs when I play G5 or Ab5 (and pedal is part-way down). Only those two notes.

-- The sound is loud and raspy. (perhaps metallic)

-- Even on those days with no buzz at all, I think those two notes sound/feel a little thin and tinny, compared to their neighbors.

Any thoughts, or any other details I could provide? I'm certainly willing to have my great technician come out and look, but there may be only so much he can do if it's not buzzing that day.

Thanks...

-Jason

My guess is a damper wire is touching one of the strings.

Maybe. But here's another strange data point:

-- If I silently depress some other notes, below the G5 (a couple octaves' worth, with my whole arm), then strike the G or Ab without pedal, the buzz still sounds. Here's what's also strange: more than once, this experiment has caused the buzzing to stop completely, immediately.

puzzled,

-Jason

I'll stick with the damper wire touching the string.
You should be able to see it. A mirror might help.
Possibly the damper wire is not traveling perfectly verticle - you would be able to see the wire shift when you look through the damper guide rail bushing.

I agree with Gene. I see two options: Call the tech when the buzz is present, or find the buzzing damper wire and try to bend it so that it doesn't buzz. And then call the tech to fix it properly.