<HTML>In a message dated 11/5/02 1:00:00 PM Central Standard Time, jorge1ml@cmich.edu writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Hello All,   Any tricks out there from those who have truly mastered dampers?  Lowest tenor F damper on S&S Ds??  Certain seasons, the guide rail grows longer putting the wire too close to the string so it zings.   I fix it and then the damper doesn't work so good.  I always end up slicing trichord felt deeper, bending wire this or that way, playing around, sticking thread between the felt, poking with needles, crying, and eventually replacing felt.   I'm getting tired of it.  I extended with a longer felt so it is almost under the brace, and the damper works fine except I'm getting about 1/2 second sing from the 5th partial.  I've replaced and messed with this so much, I don't really have a record of the original location and length of felt, though it never did work good anyway.  Ideas?  Has anyone ever made an extension like an overdamper? -Mike </BLOCKQUOTE> Mike Have you considered the possibility that it isn't the damper head, but the damper lever. Some of them have springs to help push the damper down. Maybe the spring needs to be tighten, or even replaced, if it is broken. Just a thought. Wim </HTML>