Leading Vertical Dampers

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Del... and others

Just wanted you to know the results of this job. I put it in the piano today.
As I mentioned in my last I had bored a 3 mm hole in each of the damper heads
and brought along enough lead to put in if I had too. After installing and
doing a rough regulation I decided the piano was still just a bit too noisy...
tho the 3 piece felts in the bass did help a bit.  So I decided to put lead
into the bass heads. After inserting the lead the piano was just perfect...
much more quiet with just a hint of after ring. I was really suprised with the
difference to be sure. The bass damped much better note for note, and the piano
as a whole sounded much better as a result of better damping in the bass.

Nice tip to be sure. I used just a hair over 1 gram for each bass damper and
for the first 4 tenor notes which were wound strings.

This was an older Thurmer piano serial number 48777. Sounded pretty darn good
for an old beater.

Thanks muchly for the good advice Del.

Cheers

RicB

 Delwin D Fandrich wrote:

>I should have added:
>
>Put the leads on before you strengthen any damper springs. After a bit of
>mass-loading you may not need stronger springs.
>
>Make sure you have the damper back-stop rail adjusted close in to prevent
>bouncing. It will feel just like a grand damper upstop rail set too high.
>
>Also, those elongated oval leads I used most recently started out about 18
>to 20 mm long and were about 10 to 12 mm in diameter at their waist.
>
>Del
>

Richard Brekne
RPT NPTF
Griegakadamiet UiB