After a break I'm back... to fix a massive squeak!

I've recently been out the posting routine recovering from an injury. If it were related to piano work I'd write about it, but it wasn't. I hurt my eye. Now that's it's healed, let the posting begin...

So, the massive squeak. I was finishing with a little spinet when I noticed the squeak. This home is very far from my usual area and I knew that if I didn't get this squeak cleared up I'd be back sooner than I'd prefer. Now, this should be refereed to as cumulative squeak. They're like onions with many layers. I found no less than four spots where there was a squeak. Let me walk you through them. 

The squeak was in the sustain pedal so I always start with the pedal itself and work up. By removing the trap-work lever I could hear that the pedal bushings were squeaking so a little Protek CLP there and one down.

After putting the trap-work back together I could hear that the rubber bushing on the top of the sustain rod was squeaking. A little grease on the sustain rod pin and two down.

Here's where things get a little tricky. Experience is sometimes the only way to get through situations like this and nine years of squeaks certainly helped me this time.

After I'd removed the first two layers I could hear that there was a squeak in the same area where I greased the sustain rod pin. Experience was telling me it was the sustain rod dag bushing. It was hard to get a picture of and equally hard to get some Protek on it. There are usually a few of these and without removing the action you just have to do your best. I carry Protek CLP in a bottle with a needle dropper so it's just a matter of aiming the drops until you hit it few times.

This last spot is the kicker. Pushing the pedal I could hear a little squeak that still persisted. My ear lead me to the middle of the bass strings near the dampers. I had a hunch and started pulling the damper levers back with my finger and there it was. One of the dampers had a pronounced squeak when it was pulled back. The damper spring was squeaking in the felt button. Getting Protek in there proved to be challenging. What I ended up doing is dipping a long capstan wrench in the Protek to get a drop on the end and then weaving the tip through to the damper spring. A slight touch moved the drop onto the felt and after a couple drops the squeak was gone.

It's truly wonder how all of those squeaking layers came together to make such a fantastic sound. It's also rather rewarding when you step on that same pedal and are greeted with complete silence. Truly golden.

Got a great squeak tale. Drop it in the comments.