Steinway Upright Dampers

[Les Smith]

>
> 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!

Hi, Dave. You may very well find that the lingering sound is coming from
the undampened high treble strings, which are vibrating sympathetically
when the lower, dampened strings are played and continue ringing even after
you release the lower key and IT'S strings are dampened. So try your test
again, only this time as the sound lingers, try placing your hands on the
high treble strings and see if this corrects the problem. Actually it's
NOT really a problem, it just indicates that the soundboard and bridges are
doing their job (perhaps too well!) and reflects favorably both on the
original design of those old Steinway uprights and also on the fine job you
did in restroing it! The problem you describe is frequently found in older,
high-quality uprights such as Steinway, Knabe, Bluthner, etc. Since there are
no dampers in the high treble section, you very well might have to live with
the lingering sound. Last year I restored an 1879 Steinway upright that a
similar ringing and cause.

Les Smith