noisy dampers

[Newton Hunt]

Most likely the noise is caused by the damper felt bowing the strings
when coming out.  Especially trichords are bad but maybe bichords will
do it also although I have not yet seen that.

Two solutions.

1.  Get some end nippers and cut the felt off below the strings.  This
will minimize bowing and cut the noise down to almost nil.  The
problem with this is that the felt ends are blunt and they may have
trouble seating back between the strings if there is any twisting
motion of the damper heads, the felts are glued on off center or the
string spacing is very narrow.  This is the preferred factory process.

2.  Remove each trichord and trim the felt but hold the scissors so to
cut the legs to have a wider space between the legs to allow easier
entry into the strings.  This involves removing replace, retiming and
return of the back ache.

__________
\   |   /    Original shape
 \  |  /
  \ | /
   \|/

__________
\   |   /     New trimmed shape.
 \  |  /
  \/ \/

		Newton
		nhunt@optonline.net

Cameron Jacobi wrote:
> 
> One of my customers asked me to come and check out his
> new Hallet & Davis grand piano.  He said it was making
> a funny noise in the bass section.  When I did check
> it out (I'm not sure which company is producing pianos
> with the Hallet & Davis label these days) I found that
> the noise was coming from the dampers.  When you press
> the damper pedal, it makes a whooshing sound, much
> like the lingering sound after cymbals are struck.
> 
> I don't know what is causing the noise, and I have not
> yet disassembled the piano, nor do I care to if I can
> avoid it.  This is one of those pianos with a terrible
> tone - probably either hammers that are of poor
> quality, or haven't been voiced, or both -   One
> technician suggested that perhaps the noise was coming
> from the felt rubbing against the damper wires, in
> which case, I might trying applying some protek to
> each of the damper wire channels.
> 
> Can anyone suggest any other simple measures that I
> might try, before I go to the trouble of disassembling
> the instrument?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Harriet Lipman
> 
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