With respect to all, I do not duplicate what is there on these old Steinway uprights because it is an inferior system for damping for the same reasons as it is on most of the old uprights - the dampers are too small in the bass and tenor portion of the piano to damp effectively. We have many good examples of good upright damping on modern instruments, from which we can borrow the fundamentals. When they were available to us techs, I would buy the Yamaha U-1 or U-3 damper sets and modify them slightly to fit the 52" Steinway upright I would be working on, and the damping would be dramatically better - much better shut off and little or no bass ghosting. When we stopped being able to get the Yammy stuff, I started making my own using the Renner bass dampers with the 3 blocks of bichord or monochord felt along with the supply house round barrels for the mounting. For the tenor and treble, I would make my own pieces of tapering lengths and glue the felts on and mount them on the barrels. You would have to adapt the barrels to fit the particular piano. Now Pianoforte supply sells the Renner bass damper felts, as well as treble split felts mounted on wooden blocks (tapered through the set) that can be readily adapted, so there is even less custom work now. Think about it: These old Steinway uprights have an overly complicated damping system. In addition to dampers that are too small to do the best job of damping, you have 4 different styles of blocks to mount the felt on. And you have those old underlevers that are, at this stage of the game, wearing out and causing the head to migrate to one side. So I find that I am often replacing the underlevers at the same time. That's new wire to bend to mount and fit the replacement dampers and blocks. The replacement blocks from Tokiwa are really expensive, and still an inferior choice given the alternatives. So why not just change the whole system at this point? There are usually 6 overdampers in the low tenor on these old beasts, and 4 or 5 of them don't need to be there if the head is of sufficient length. Most of the time the only overdamper I need to keep is the lowest note in the tenor where the bass strings crossing over along with the passing of the hammer overhead require that the damper be too small to adequately shut off the string quickly. Pianoforte supply sells these overdampers also. Sometimes I use an overdamper on the second note up from the break to quiet it down, but never more than that. Your materials cost are going to be lower even as you get significantly better damping. The barrel system to mount the heads is easier to adjust than the blocks, which is why so many manufacturers use it these days. By modern standards of damper system design, one could not say that these pianos damped particularly well when they were new in 1902, even the Steinways. We know how to do it better, and it ain't rocket science. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Garrett Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 10:23 AM To: CHARLES BECKER; pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing dampers on a Steinway Upright Good thinking.<G> Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I ----- Original Message ----- From: CHARLES BECKER <mailto:cbeckercpt at verizon.net> To: joegarrett at earthlink.net;pianotech at ptg.org Sent: 2/7/2011 4:04:53 AM Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing dampers on a Steinway Upright I appreciate all the input and am moving towards the don't fix it if it ain't broke camp.----- Original Message ----- From: Joseph Garrett <mailto:joegarrett at earthlink.net> To: pianotech <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 1:15 AM Subject: [pianotech] Replacing dampers on a Steinway Upright Chuck B. asked: " am replacing the damper felts on this turn of the century Steinway vertical piano. Should I just replicate the felts as shown or is there a better felt configuration. I can't tell if this is the original pattern or not. Except for being crusty and worn, they seem to damp well enough. Thanks in advance." Chuck, It appears to be orginal dampers. (possibly a K-52?<G>) I've always duplicated as close to possible. Problem is, that finding high quality damper felt, like what was originally used, can be a bit difficult, IMO. Regards, Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110207/70290cd2/attachment-0001.htm>
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