Hi Phil: The biggest cause for damper over-ring is when the dampers do not follow the strings. You should be able to push against a string and have the damper follow for 1/16". If the damper does not follow, the cause could be that the Bass sustain pedal is adjusted too tightly. Occasionally the regular sustain pedal is adjusted too tightly. Another cause is that spoons may be adjusted too early. The worst case might be that the damper heads are tilted too tight at the top and not resting against the strings on the bottom. I am talking about vertical pianos here. Analogous to this in Grands is when the damper is rocked too heavy toward the front side. It is common to find note 29 on Baldwin vertical pianos having the over-ring problem. In this case it is mostly because the length of the damper is so limited at the break. When I was with the Co. I solved that particular problem by deviating from the specs and was chastised for not sticking to the specs. To this date, they have still not corrected the problem. It's so simple to fix. Jim Coleman, Sr.
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