At 07:24 AM 05/08/2000 -0400, you wrote: >I was servicing a very ornate Steinway D (hand painted/carved/gold in-laid) >in an exclusive restaurant and noticed ugly fishing weights glued securely >on top of several damper heads. Some of the dampers had two weights one on >front and the other at the back. The dampers seem to work OK so I left them >alone (I'm no fool). > >My question is: Is this a last-ditch, acceptable repair technique or an >amateurish attempt to quiet ringing dampers? I would think that a damper >problem on such a piano could/should be solved in a more professional way or >at least put the weights inside the underlever system. Does it ever come to >a point where this technique is necessary? I've always WANTED to solve it >this way, but questioned whether it is an acceptable repair technique. >Did I miss a chapter in my piano-tech edjication? > >Phil Ryan >Miami Beach > > This is a band-aide fix. It is treating the symptom and not the problem. The probable reason it_is_there, is that the owners do not want to spend the money on a proper repair. Either that or a musician taped on the weight. I've seen lead fishing weights crimped onto the damper wire. Once the owners were fed up with the mickey-mouse repairing, I found tight centers. Once repinned and assist springs installed, everything is fine. If it is within their budget, a Renner USA underlever replacement would be the best solution. Regards, Jon Page, piano technician Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. mailto:jonpage@mediaone.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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