Damper Wheeze -Reply

[Jack Reeves]

>>> <Yardbird47@aol.com> 02/07/95 06:48am >>>
Anybody have tricks on getting rid of damper lift noise in the
trichord wedges. I was called in at a fancy recording studio,
whose Yamaha C7F
Disklavier had a noisy sustain pedal. The dampers in this region
(16 in all) have trichords front and back, ruling out the chance of a
Steinway style solution (favoring the flats over the wedges). My
first idea was to replace the back wedges with flats. Mark at
Yamaha said try trimming the portion of the wedges which hang
underneath the string and to iron the sides of the wedges (to
smooth down any stray fibers which might be sticking out. Neither
of these worked. The only thing which did was the introduction of
the flat pads (and that works to the extent that you leave the
balance of pressure between the front and back towards the side
where you begin to notice the softness of flat-pad damping.) Of
course, they can also pull the mikes out from under the lid, and
make sure that when it comes time for the quiet passages which
will show up the "heartbreak of damper emphysema", the pianist
has the sense not to approach the sustain pedal as a hot-rodder
would pealing out on a green light.
Any ideas?

Bill Ballard RPT      "May you work on interesting pianos."
NH Chapter, PTG               Ancient Chinese Proverb

How about trying a light coat of Mclube 1725 on the strings and
offending dampers?

vince mrykalo