Hi,

Recently, there has been a mysterious rattle that appears when I play certain notes, and it is driving me insane, I have taken evrything off the piano to see if it was anything on top of the piano, but it wasn't. So that leaves the piano itself.

I had the tuner here the other day, and it didn't rattle once while he tuned it, and the only difference being that he had the lid completely open. So this leaves me to presume the rattle is coming from the lid, but I can't point out the exact place.

Has this happened to anyone else? How did you sort it out?

It's probably something caught on the lid in some way or other. Try taking off all the bits that will come off and have a good look around all their edges and at the places on the piano where they attach for anything that could be loose. Try playing something after you take each bit off so that you can narrow it down to the bit that's causing a problem. If you can't find anything that's got caught in it somehow, maybe check the screws on the turny bits which hold the front in place, as they could be vibrating against the front panel if the screws were loose.

Those are just ideas - basically have a really good look over all the places where something could be vibrating and you should find the cause. You may even find that it sorts itself out without you actually finding anything and that just taking the piano apart and putting it back together again will fix it.

Let us know how you get on.

On my piano the music stand sometimes rattles so you could try giving it a bit of a jiggle to see if that is the problem? Other than that I am not sure? Sorry. I hope you find the problem and fix the rattle!!

Mines had a few rattles

First: a loose screw in the metronome
Second: my glasses fell in (although it produced a lovely harpsichord sound )
Third: a CD fell in, and i couldn't be bothered to get it out for about a month.
Fourth: a loose hammer doing something...

It could be a snake!

It doesn't happen all the time so I think the humidty levels have something to do with it. Anyway, when the note B was played on our grand piano I would hear an annoying buzzing noise. I looked everywhere too and thought it was loose fitments on the wall light above the piano. Eventually I tracked it down to one of the screws on the front part of the lid because when I put my hand over it and played B it was quiet. It wasn't obviously loose though so it might be hard to stop it happening. Mine has been quiet though since the central heating was turned off for the summer.

No snakes in our lounge!!

Thanks for your replies.

Well, finding it should give me something to do for a little while.

Lets hope its not a snake.

Is it an upright piano? I once cured a rattle by tightening all the (thousands of!) screws in the lid hinge.

Or it may be from the top panel (behind the music desk). The tuner would have had to take that off, and probably the flap over the keys as well, so the rattle could be coming from anywhere there.

The rattle occured before he came, i just forgot to ask him about it, I think it could be the same as yours mcm with the screws in the lid, but there are soooooo many of them. Do they think the lid is just going to fly off?

Our piano's done that in the past. I tried the taking stuff off the top trick, sometimes to no avail. I think that smoetimes it may have something to do with something else in the room "buzzing".
Hope you get it sorted ; i know it's soso irritating!

Is it kind of like the after-rattle you get from the snares on a snare drum?

I sometimes find this noise occurs when I play my piano even when there's nothing on it (or having taken everything off it still happens). I've always thought it must be something else in the room but never really looked into it too much - you can't really play and go looking for it at the same time! The vibrations from a piano must go quite far though, what else is in the room with your piano?

Next time it happens get someone else in the room with you and see if they can find where it's coming from while you're playing. Only thing I can think of to find the source.

I know there are a lot of them but try checking each one with a screwdriver - they can loosen slightly with changing temperatures. Don't tighten them so hard that they strip but make sure that they are firm. It will only take a few minutes.

Otherwise just remember to ask the tuner the next time he comes . I once had a rattle which I eventually tracked down to a crystal vase on the mantelpiece...