[CAUT] damper return noise/una corda

[David Ilvedson]

Oinking dampers, right?   I get the same problem.   Do you have Steve Brady's book?   Kathy Smith has an little article about how she fixes the problem...I have not tried it, but you use the old fashion capstan wrench with the fat tip and the on the other end is the V shape with notches for different sized square capstans.   Apparently she pushes up right in the middles of the tri-chord damper with fat end...not point but entire thing.   What it does I don't know...read the article...great book, worth having.

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 5/6/2010 10:09:40 AM
Subject: [CAUT] damper return noise/una corda


>	There has been discussion in the past on this list of the problem of  
>damper return noise when playing with una corda. This problem has  
>really been bugging me more and more. The issue is that the dampers  
>work fine with next to no return noise except when the una corda pedal  
>is used. But when the u c is used, there is considerable, often very  
>audible return noise, and it happens when someone is trying to play  
>very softly so is doubly annoying, essentially in areas where there  
>are trichord damper felts. I have tried lots of things, the most  
>promising of which is to tilt the dampers very subtly so that flats  
>hit the strings slightly ahead of trichords, and this helps but  
>doesn't eliminate the problem. Different damper felt doesn't seem to  
>help, though I can't say I have tried everything (haven't tried Yamaha  
>or Kawai, for instance).
>	I am at a loss what to do to avoid this other than to change hammer  
>alignment and shift parameters so that all strings are always struck  
>by all hammers. I am beginning to suspect this may be a major reason  
>why the Steinway basement guys decided to make that change to their  
>standard procedure. While I like to have the two string tonal palette  
>available, the tradeoff of that return noise seems to wipe out the  
>advantage.
>	Does anyone else have thoughts on how to resolve this issue?
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>fssturm at unm.edu
>http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm