Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Ringing sound

First off, I'm not a tuner. But in my summer place here, I have a Baldwin Concert Vertical. I've gone through 3 tuners here, all of whom have not really made it sound any better. I've asked for voicing, etc and really not gotten very far with any of them. (Various reasons, too complicated to mention here.)

I'm focussing on one rather chronic problem and that is a ringing noise. I'm not quite sure how to describe it more than that. It is NOT musical, and as far as I can tell not coming from the strings. It is sort of like an electronic feedback sound albeit softer levels.

I'm hoping this is a common problem that someone out there knows about and can possibly give me some tips on how I might be able to ameliorate it or even get rid of it altogether.

I'm open to questions if I'm not being clear.
Thanks.

You may have some dampers that are not seating well, or need to be voiced/fluffed/replaced. Other things could be:

1. normal residual sound that you're not accustomed to. Open the lid and yell into the piano loudly. If this echoing or resonating sound is what you're hearing, you're probably married to it.

2. you could have something in the room resonating and vibrating along with the piano. ...you may trust us, this happens and you'd swear its inside the piano. ...check hinges, loose screws, and picture frames and any knick knacks that are ceramic and hold other things like keys etc..

3. you could have a very strange sympathetic howling noise...I have a relatively expensive grand that I service that will, on occasion, accumulate sound in the bass register and it sounds like high pitched feedback...its difficult to eliminate because it is part of the way the piano was designed, i.e. bridges, string scaling etc. ...but since it comes and goes, the client isn't bothered by it.

4. Others will need to weigh in...

Hope some of that helps...RPD

In today's society that means that you will have to live with the problem for about 7 years on average.

it could be very hard hammers that need to be softened. they could be releasing a lot of high frequencies that you may be particularly sensitive to.

it could be something in the room is resonating with the piano--if that is the case, it will only resonate with certain notes, not every note on the piano.

i occasionally get an incredibly irritating resonance from my piano and after a lot of room exploration, i now know it means that the metal rim of a torchiere lamp has come loose again. i adjust the lamp, and the sound goes away. the lamp is about six feet away from the piano, and yet it sounds like the noise is inside the piano.

Thanks for all this. I should have said that the piano was moved from one house to another and the ringing has been in both places. I think maybe focussing on the damper might be a good approach for me. The hammers were recently needled, but I'm assuming they arent mentioned as a culprit. I remember now that the technician showed me a few "problem" dampers. He did say that changing them was a possibility, but didn't say that sentence as any particular remedy to the resonating, but more for other buzzes in the actual strings that I was complaining about.

Sounds like maybe that's what's going on though. I will try yelling into my piano and report back. I'm not near it at the moment.

LOL!

Seriouly, you can yell into it, but you might feel better if you just yell AT it!

OK...really seriously this time. Yelling is just to create a loud noise inside the instrument. Any other technique will work just as well...like say, playing all the notes at once with your arms and then stopping abruptly.

...or you could try yelling at the tuner!...(there I go again...Friday night, don't you know??)

...just make sure if your family members come home and find you bent over with your head inside the piano and yelling at it, that you're hollering something that makes sense....like "HEY!! You...PIANO...You're really bothering me!!!!!!"


...RPD

Rick, FUNNY!

Hey piano! Can you hear me now? I'm standing here with a blow torch too so you'd better behave and stop making these noises NOW!

Is it possible that the ringing noises you are hearing is actually coming through from the last upper register of the piano that has NO dampers?

Could be.... interesting if depressing thought. how would i cure that?

Is it on all the keys, or just a few? Or, is it more prominent on a few?

Sounds like it could be a classic case of "damper bleed."

This could be caused by something as simple as a lack of lost motion in the damper pedal. If so, it would take about 2 minutes to fix.

Or as it has been suggested, it could be the timing or seating of some of the dampers... most likely in the bass. Basically, sympathetic vibration in not-quite-damped strings causes this.

Though less likely, it's possible that there could be one or more rogue wire segments (non speaking length) vibrating sympathetically. If so, it's a matter of tracking them down and muting them... probably with stringing braid.

If it's in the 'undampered' high treble like Jerry suggested, I'm not sure what you could do without modifying the action.

Like so many problems, this is one where it is impossible to address with any degree of certainty without hearing the piano and possibly an explanation of what the owner is hearing. No matter what it is, it is going to take a tech to do anything about it.

In other words, you are just going to have to find someone to fix it.

Well, I took some time to listen to this ringing more carefully, now that I've been given some options, and I think it very well might be bad dampers. I'm noticing the ringing being VERY pronounced on one bass note in particular (i forgot to write it down! but i think it was a B below the break).

i do remember one of the 3 tuners i've had look at this mentioned offhandedly that it could be time to change the dampers. the thing is it's a relatively old piano, and my "other" one. I just bought an Estonia Grand, which I don't mind putting money into.

if there are any DIY suggestions on this I'd be glad to hear. I don't mind to much experimenting on this. but i trust replacing my own damper felts might be asking for trouble.