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As the title says I am suffering from metallic sounding strings in the middle section particularly the temperament area. The piano was restrung before I started to work on it. Any suggestions as to why Im getting this sound even on a light blow. The hammers seem fine and the damper wire is not in contact with the string. Any ideas are appreciated.

Cheers

Try tapping the bridge pins. Is it fully up to pitch?

No, don't mess with the bridge pins, that can make things worse. Can you tell us more about the piano? Age, type, model.

Poorly shaped agraffes, Strings need leveling and mating to the hammers.

Thanks all for the ideas, I had actually checked the bridge pins and none seem loose. The piano is up to pitch. Agraffes could be the problem, I don't think the hammers are the problem as they seem square to the strings and are also new. After looking closer it seems to me that the strings are resting on the damper guide rail, but then all the strings seem like that and not all are sounding metallic. Is this normal?

As to the age of the piano I am not sure I had posted another thread looking for ideas on that. The frame has been resprayed and I can not locate a serial number. Its a Kimball 6 foot grand and my guess is that its somewhere in the 1920s. Is there any way to date the piano without the serial number for eg case part numbers etc.

The hammers could be too hard.

Ya maybe the hammers are too hard I will try and voice them a little tomorrow see if that helps, but I can still here the twang when the cation is out and i pluck the strings.

If the strings are buzzing against the damper guide rail, that would not be a metallic sound, per se. Metal to metal (metallic) has a different sound than metal to wood. At least I'm pretty sure it does :-)

Indeed it does. While it was mentioned that the damper wires are not in contact I'd also make certain the dampers rise evenly and level and fully clear for an open string. If someone else restrung it and was a little cavalier about damper re-installation they may not be clearing the string fully. I find it odd that the strings would be so close to the damper guide rail that they could actually make contact. If that were the case I'd be concerned about other things that may be questionable (lower plate to increase down bearing and so forth).

Thanks again for the suggestions I will regulate the dampers next time Im at the piano hopefully that helps. I am also a little worried about how close the strings are to the damper guide rail, perhaps the plate was screwed down to far which increased down bearing. I was considering taking of the damper guide rail and sanding it back a mm or so, any thoughts on this.

What make piano?

The piano is a Kimball 6 foot grand

Would anyone know where I can get a Kimball Piano manual, their site seems to be down.

Kimball is out of the piano business, although I believe there is another company that is using the name.