Sustain rods

[robin fox]

A rather common problem around here is upright damper/sustain systems out of
whack, the familiar uneven rise of the line of dampers. After tightening all
relevant hardware (which doesn't usually help much) I regulate it. But I don't
quite understand why this develops or how to fairly simply solve it other than
by regulation.

Removing the rods to see if they're warped might take quite a while; and if
they are, what then, just replace and regulate anyway? Is straightening one
of these rods practical? Or is the problem compression of the felt in the
mounting brackets, which doesn't seem like it could account for all the
out-of-lineness.

Thanks
Robin Fox