Lovely OverDamper Piano

[John Ross]

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Haven't you seen terms like sustaining tone bar, and like terms? I have seen similar terms on pianos, say into the 20's.
I have no idea, of how the pianos over a 100 years sounded when new.
I just know, that of the birdcage ones I have had contact with, very few had a reasonable damper operation. The German ones, seem to be the exception.
The point, I was trying to make, is, that as technicians, we should try to please the present owner, and if they want the dampers to work better, we should try and make that happen, regardless of how they sounded when new.

John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Farrell 
  To: An open list for piano technicians 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 8:13 PM
  Subject: Re: Lovely OverDamper Piano


  How is it we "know" how pianos originally sounded 100+ years ago? I know some piano tuners are old, but........

  Terry Farrell
    ----- Original Message ----- 

    I have some input into the subject of 'ringing dampers'.
    Some of the North American pianos, of the earlier part of the 20th century, had dampers that were not as efficient also.
    They had terms like resonant whatever. They liked the 'ring', in those days.
    Just because a piano was manufactured, as the birdcage etc., with an after ring, does not mean that we have to stick with that. The customer should not have to put up with this after ring, if they don't like it, just because that is the way the piano was 'meant' to be.
    If we can modify, or reduce this 'noise', then we should.
    This German piano I tuned recently, was a birdcage, Ibach I think, had a minimal after ring, so the birdcage, can obviously be made to have a more efficient damper system.
    John M. Ross
    Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
    jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
      ----- Original Message ----- 

      Wow, that's surprising.  I thought it was a deficiency of modern upright dampers that they don't damp (not dampen! :-) near the strike point, like grand dampers do.

      --Cy--
        ----- Original Message ----- 


        ...the closer you get to the string termination the less effective the damper will be to absorb the vibrating energy. This fact was established in the time of around 1850 or so. Sooooooo, again, The Over Ring IS intentional and should only be moderated, NOT eliminated, because it is impossible, given the action geometry & physical characteristics. 

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