damper guide rail cloth?

[pbertoni@oberlin.edu]

To All- The inner material is made up of nylon fibers. Steinway embarked on
this style of guide rail bushing during the beginning of the teflon years.
Their motive was to be able to fit the damper wire tightly in the guide
rail yet not have it bind (the nylon fibers are much more slippery than
wool). As we all know, the inner material may have been fit tightly at
first but certainly did not stay that way.

When I worked at Oberlin, we recapped this kind of guide rail during damper
action rebuilds. By sawing of and replacing only the top, there was
considerably less work than replacing the entire guide rail.

Ken Sloane, erstwhile from Oberlin Conservatory

=======================================

--On Mon, Feb 4, 2002 9:29 AM -0600 John Minor <jminor@uiuc.edu> wrote:

> I'm rebuilding a 1965 Steinway L with *2* pieces of bushing cloth in the
> damper guide rail. The outer felt is conventional red bushing cloth and
> the inner felt is a soft brown material of unknown composition.
> 
> Anyone have a dependable solution for replacing this felt?
> 
> John Minor
> University of Illinois
> 
> 
>