Hi John, Because of its location this is not an easy damper to fix. Remove the F$2 and G2 dampers you can see what is happening with F2. First, check that the strings are level at the damper location. If not level them but not at the expense of the hammer hitting all three strings. Pluck the strings to determine that all three are equally muted. If the center string is muted better then the damper wedges are not long enough and you need to deepen the cut in the center a bit. If either the left or right strings are better than the wedge is too fat to allow the other wedge to mute the other outside string. Remove the damper and use pliers to massage the felt thinner and try again. If there is one single length of felt on the block remove 1/3 of the dampers length in the middle so there are two dampers of equal length. You may need to experiment to determine the optimum length and location of the peices. Remove the damper and place felts on the strings and move them about while playing the note. If a damper touches in the front and not the back certain harmonics will stand out. If it touches in the back and not the front a different set of harmonics will stand out. Sometimes the thickness of one side of a dmpaer felt will prevent the otherside from muting correctly and you will get the harmonics speaking as ablove. Tapping the damper block front then back and watching the movement of the block will tell you if the felts are seating equally front and rear. Carefully watch that the damper does not move sideways when it comes up. You must increase or decrease the dog leg bends near the block to change the blocks location relative to the strings. Make certain that nothing is holding the damper up: it does not touch the top of the key, the lift tray, an adjacent damper lever or center pin, does not touch the plate fin or the plate brace, the spring is in place and of the right tension, the pinning is properly free, the wire dies not bind in the bushing (drop the damper in place but out of the top flange to see that the wire and the hole align perfectly) and is free front to back, make certain the wire does not rub the right side of the bushing overly hard, the wire is clean and polished with no burrs where it goes through the bushing, that the bushing is sized properly and is not comtaminated with grease of some such. Check that the sostenuto tab is not touching the sostenuto bar and is aligned up and down and front to back with the others in that section. I am sure I have left out some problem or other but these should keep you busy for ten or fifteen minutes while I think of more stupid tricks. Newton
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