Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Yamaha U3-weird overtones?

I have a Yamaha U3 (I think it's from the early-mid 80s), and it has what seems to be weird annoying overtones. A lack of clarity.

I'm wondering what could be causing that, and if it's fixable, or if that's just the nature of this piano.

I have seen the word "inharmonicity", and I sort of have a general idea what that is :), and I'm wondering if that could be the cause of this lack of clarity, or if it's more likely something mechanical, resonances in the cabinet or something.

Thanks for any info.

For some strange reason, we can't seem to hear the "weird overtones" from where we are.
Seriously, you need to talk to a technician who can listen to the piano and do something about it. It could be fixable, as it could be a lot of different things. Inharmonicity is not on the list of suspects.

You can't hear it? I can hear it plain as day!

I just wanted to get a bead on what it could be. For example, I've been hunting around on the net, and found a thread discussing room acoustics and wooden floors. Someone was saying a wood floor can bring out the worst in a piano. This piano is on a wooden floor!

Could that be one of the suspects? What are the other suspects?

Thanks.

The most common suspect is tuning. After that is voicing.

Geez, guys! We haven't even discussed the age related issues of dead bass strings, flat soundboards, and bizarre hammer shaping done in cheap 'refurbishments' seen in the occasional grey market pianos.

Heck! There's a host of things we can't possibly discern from our chairs while staring at a computer screen! Why limit the possibilities to tuning and voicing? Get with it, people!

Seriously? Get a tech. Talk to him/her. Jurgen is quite correct...typical.

Nodding,
Off,
I am,

People are more likely to call a tech when they are assured that the problem that they are experiencing can usually be solved by nothing more than ordinary maintenance.

Have the piano checked. That's first. Most concert pianos are placed on wooden floors so it can't be THAT bad, right? I have heard rooms that do create a sort of ring modulation effect but they're so echoey they'd be kind of hard to live in. You could check the floor by spreading every pillow in the house (even chair cushions) on the floor near the piano. You might even go so far as to rent some heavy moving blankets for twenty or so dollars and leave them in scrunchy bunches on the floor to see what effect that has. Why not flat? because in folds they'll "eat" more of the middle frequencies and not just the treble.

Kurt

I believe the U3 is an upright. Is it against a window? Windows can do strange things to the harmonics.

- Rick