Strip muting problem

[Kenneth W. Burton]

	Jerry,

	Use a very thin strip of felt and insert it between #2 and #3
strings.

	Ken Burton "Doctor Piano" Calgary Alberta 

On Wed, 3 Dec 1997, Jerry Hunt wrote:

> 
> After doing some repairs on a 1911 Feuhr & Stemmer (the subject of a
> previous post, for which I received some valuable tips - thanks again),
> and a couple of pitch raises, I went a couple of days ago to do the fine
> tuning. I discovered, much to my chagrin, that because the strings are
> very close to the plate (this appears to be by design, and not due to
> some problem that has crept up over the years), it was nearly impossible
> to get a strip to stay between the strings. So I used my thinnest strip,
> poked it in the best I could, and juggled wedge mutes frantically, but
> that made checks, such as series of thirds, etc., quite difficult.
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions as how best to handle this sort of
> problem? My first inclination was to tell the customer that I needed to
> burn in a hammer and "accidentally" set the whole piano on fire, but
> then decided that would be bad customer relations :o) But seriously, any
> help with stripping, or alternative (other than using 50 wedge mutes)
> would be greatly appreciated.
>