200A highest b note reed makes pingy noise

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Hi there,

long time since my last post and the reason is, that I needed to lube all the action centers in my Wurlitzer because it was a gummy mess.

I had this Wurly serviced many years ago by a very reputable tech and after I got it back it was all glitchy from tons and tons of silicone. Fast forward a couple of years in a very dry environment (at least in the winter time, 20% humidity sometimes) and many keys would not come back up. The action centers of the whips very completely dry, yet gummy.

So i ordered some Protek CLP and tore apart the whole action and lubed all centers with CLP which worked nicely. Almost all wooden parts had this gummy/gooey feel to them from the prior dosing with silicone by the tech.

So one thing come to my attention after re-setting the action, the upper most b note has a very strong metallic ping when the hammer hits the reed.

As far as I can see, the hammer does not hit the reed rail itself, but just the reed.  Stopping the hammer short before hitting the reed gets of course rid of the metallic ping. Is this a sign of a reed failing? The reed sustains nicely and sounds healthy. It is just this very loud mechanical ping that is quite annoying. The neighbor reeds all sound fine and do not show this phenomenon. Maybe the hammer needs a little tweak so that it strikes the reed some place else? Yet the sound is full and it seems the hammer hits the reed at the right spot.

Any ideas? I need to find a replacement reed in my stash, but maybe someone else already encountered such mechanical pinging noise and have an easy fix or answer.

Best Regards and many thanks for any help regaridng this issue.

Dote

[Dote]

Update: it is not the reed. With the reed removed, it still pings. The hammer tip seems not to hit the reed rail as said. Stopping the hammer short inhibits the ping.

So I could now swap the hammer with the ha,mer of the highest c note. But maybe I will just live with it, since I never really seem to hit that highest b note

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[pianotuner steveo]

Just adjust the strike line of the reed bar. It should be a simple fix.

[AndyP]

Update: it is not the reed. With the reed removed, it still pings. The hammer tip seems not to hit the reed rail as said. Stopping the hammer short inhibits the ping.

So I could now swap the hammer with the ha,mer of the highest c note. But maybe I will just live with it, since I never really seem to hit that highest b note

Dote

i just had a similar issue with mine - 2 notes in the top octave had a metallic "dink" sound on hammer hits after rebuilding the action. I tracked it down to a loose action center on the hammer, which is weird because it sounded like the reed making the sound. If I put pressure on the side of the hammer flange, the sound disappeared. I treated the action centers with naptha and it did not help.

My short-term fix was to remove the pin and add a mcguyvered paper washer between the flange and the hammer. This does slow the hammer though. I don't have a long term solution yet. VV is out of treble hammers so either I re-bush the action centers, buy some thicker pins from a piano supply place or buy bass/treble hammers from vv and swap out the tips.
None of those options sound as fun as playing the piano though.