damper springs

[Farrell]

Yes, the springs should be strong enough......... if there is that much travel in the damper lever before the bottom of it touches the damper lift rod. Generally speaking, with the damper felt installed, the dampers should have just a bit or travel left past where they rest on the strings (two or three millimeters perhaps). Be aware that most old uprights will have rather weak damper springs. Most often, you really need to rebuild or replace the damper levers, flanges, etc. Bill Spurlock has an excellent pamphelt on rebuilding upright dampers. He details how to redesign and make custom dampers that WORK!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Mulik" <tubist@swbell.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 9:27 PM
Subject: damper springs


> One quick question from a beginning rebuilder:
> 
> I've removed the damper felts from an upright action but left the heads in
> place for now.  When I reinstalled the action in the piano, the heads did
> not touch the strings.  Is this an indication that the springs should be
> replaced?  It seems to me that they should be strong enough to hold the
> damper heads to the strings even without felts on them.
> 
> Thanks,
> Paul Mulik
> 
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