Damper height gauges

[Newton Hunt]

For 35 years I have used three methods.

1.  A 3/4" brass rod, drilled tapped and partially turned so the upper
half resembles a cone.  There is a screw with a knurled flat top and a
lock nut.  Works great for a few but tiresome for a set.

2.  A long piece of wood (just to short for a full set of dampers)
with the retainer bolts from a refrigerator as height adjusts.  Works
great especially if the dampers have to be adjusted at a slant which
happens more often than not.

3.  Feather footing the sustain pedal.  Very time consuming but
effective.

I have timed a set of dampers using the damper tray but have never
been satisfied with the results.  Too easy to leave one low or high
unless the wires a loose in the top flanges which they rarely are in
an American piano.

With the first two I set the gauge so it is a paper thickness below my
samples then adjust all the others so I can almost not feel and can
hear that space when dapping of the lever.  This method is very fast
(low ones eliminated) and very accurate.

I went to Vienna in 1977 to spend a month in the Bosendorfer factory. 
The first thing they had me do was to install a set of dampers into
the 9'6" Imperial.  The tray was just within my fingers grasp when the
arm pits were against the keybed.  I truly _HATED_ that event but I
_did_ learn how to install a set of dampers.  Life is never fair.

The sequence was adjust the height to the sostenuto rod, adjust the
timing with the capstan screw at the bottom of the lever then adjust
the spoons to the key height for key timing.  Bosendorfer also uses a
universal jointed top flange to help eliminate the need for most wire
bending except to position the head over the strings.

The one thing I was forced to learn is to install one damper at a time
and make that one damper work perfectly before going on to the next. 
Some prefer to drop all the dampers in at once then try to make them
work.  My experience is that one at a time works because one is
disinclined to leave something undone before going on to the next. 
One is inclined to overlook imperfections if one is daunted by a full
set to trouble shoot and fix.

		Newton