Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Buzzing long hinges

I thought I would share an old fix, that some people may not have heard of.

As most technician's have experienced, long hinges in piano lids (grand or upright pianos) very often develop sympathetic vibrations. The resulting buzzes only on certain notes in the piano can really alarm new piano owners, and although just wiggling the lid usually stops it temporarily, people tend to feel it is a serious issue in the piano.

Today we received back a piano with a supposed incurable buzz in the top board long hinge. The technician had already installed a new hinge, but the new one started buzzing also. He also accidentally chipped the finish when putting the new hinge on (ouch!) so when the new hinge started buzzing, the owner started demanding that the dealer replace the piano. I sort of understand their feelings.

What is bothering me, though, is that the fix was so simple! I used a syringe to apply linseed oil in the openings in the hinge, where the brass is curled around the pin. After putting a bead of oil on, I worked the hinge back and forth for 15 seconds, then wiped the excess oil off. The buzz was fixed. 5 minutes work!

There are other techniques as well, such as removing the hinge pin and putting a curve in it. But the linseed oil is really ideal - it is slightly thick when applied, then gets thicker and sticky inside the hinge over a week or so, permanently damping any vibrations of the pin.

After tuning and regulating the piano, I played it for about 30 minutes to try to get the hinge to work into a vibrating position again, but it never did. In my past use of this trick over many years, I never had the noise return.

So if you haven't tried this method, give it a go. Works great! If only I could get the factory to do it before they ship out the pianos! I'm going to try again next week . . .

Great tip, Don. I've had good results putting a greasy type lubricant on the hinge also. However, the linseed sounds particularly effective. Its also a "green" repair!

Hi Don,
I spent many hours with the same problem years ago on a Young Chang U131. I finally called Paul Gilchirst at YC Canada and he told me to use linseed oil. Problem fixed in a matter of minutes.

Wayne

Thank you!!!

I know this one's going to be useful, probably in the near future, too. Thanks, Don.

Thanks Don! That should save some phone calls to Kawai as well from techs.

I used to remove half of the hinge, fall board or whatever hinge was the offending one. I would pull it out of one side 1/2 way. Then, rub Vaseline on it, slide it back in removing excess Vaseline as it went it. Then, I would tap it out the other side in the same manner, half way and doing likewise. The Vaseline took up any gaps there were inside of the hinge eliminating all future vibrations but, it was much more time consuming. This will be tons easier me thinks!

Thank you so much for this suggestion!

Question: what kind of linseed oil is ideal for this? Apparently there's all kinds of varieties... refined, cold-pressed, drying, standing, thickened... not sure which to get! See below...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...3ef368b&pf_rd_r=6TWDS3DCEC4Y5DXY48VB

I would just get regular boiled linseed oil that you can find in a hardware store.

Thank you for sharing this tip. The hinges on my Baldwin SD-10 tend to buzz, especially when the lid is closed. When it happens I either ignore it or press a little on the pin, which stops it for a while.

What sort of syringe do you use for this, and where would one get such a syringe?

Syringes aren't hard to find. I just saw a 15-pack on Amazon with an assortment of blunt tipped needles for $5.

Sorry to belabor this, but I got the linseed oil and am now a little gun-shy on how to proceed... could someone please elaborate a little bit more on how this is administered?

Many thanks.

This can be a messy job if you are not careful. I had a tech that needed to replace my hinge because of cosmetic damage caused by imprecise application into the grooves of the hinge.

OK, hang on here. You're talking about a grand piano. You've got like 3 hinges with maybe 2-inch long hinge pins. We're talking about upright pianos with a single long hinge pin that runs the entire length of the piano. You shouldn't need a syringe. Just close the lid and pull the hinge pins out one at a time.