Steinway Upright Dampers

[PIANOBIZ@aol.com]

Dear fellow techs

We have restored a beautiful ebony Steinway "V"  49" upright, circa 1900, and
have one "lingering" problem, the dampers.  We have added extra over dampers,
we have plenty of tension against the strings, the tension follows the
strings if the strings are pushed away, we are properly lifting as the hammer
comes forward, there is no one string causing this lingering, such as a
misplaced damper pad hitting two of the three strings, yet we have a chorus
of sound which lingers on too long.  I have placed my hand on various parts
of the piano trying to dampen the sound manually and cannot even locate the
source of the problem.  It is a phantom!

I'd like to ignore it and say that's just the way it is, but I am compelled
to solve this one. In reading Del Fandrich's article in the PTJournal, he
compares of weight in the upright damper system to the weight in the grand
and marvels that the upright system dampens at all.  He seems to fault the
mass of the damper itself in not being able to dampen the strings.

I am wondering if anyone first of all has had this problem and solved it, and
second if anyone has experimented with adding weight to the upright damper
system.  I had even thought of clamping split shot, (fisherman's stuff) onto
the damper wires to add weight.
Any input would be appreciated.


David Sanderson
Littleton, MA
PIANOBIZ@aol.com