1980's vintage YC G185 is starting to age into the realm of needing some serious work.
F#58 and other notes in that area are generating a high pitched metallic buzz. When I push down on the high end of the bridge beyond C88 the sound goes away.
A bridge pin could be touching the wood screw that holds the bridge to the soundboard.
The soundboard could be loose at that end next to the rim and belly rail.
The reflector is tight.
This all was found after struggling for an hour to localize the noise a bit more. It's not the half lid hinge. It's not the sos linkage at the rail. It's not the aluminum damper rail or any of the belly rail mounted hardware.
The customer is becoming disenchanted with the whole acoustic piano idea and is leaning towards using a digital piano for the rest of his retirement aged life. I showed him where he could put a wedge in between the belly rail and the rib creating pressure from underneath. As I left his place he was working on creating that piece.
As if that wasn't enough news/damage for the day, I walked over to his grand-daughter's house (across the yard from the YC house), and proceeded to tune a lovely little Lester spinet. It has first generation plastic elbow replacements in it that I promptly broke as I applied a test or settling blow on a note in the bass. We talked about options and G-pa decided to spend the money on a different piano altogether rather than fix the olde Lester. Smart move there Grandpa.
Two pianos down as a new day comes upon us all. I wonder how many other pianos are going to meet their eventual demise today.
Having delivered bad news on two pianos for the day I had to return to the barn. Traffic being the ever increasing time consuming mess that it is, I opted to stop by a fellow piano rebuilder's shop and help for a few hours .... for free just to pick up on a few tidbits of knowledge that happen to be floating around his shop.
Lar