So, let's talk about damper lift

[william ballard]

On Mar 15, 2006, at 7:31 AM, A440A at aol.com wrote:
> My question was not looking for consensus, but, rather, to gather  
> others' impressions as to where the final height of lift should be  
> for optimum performance.

The damper up-stop rail should not limit the highest motion of the  
underlevers, either by the key end, the sustain pedal, or  the  
sostenuto; it should be there to limit any further motion after this  
highest lift. As I regulate these three, the sostenuto needs to lift  
higher than the key end, which needs to lift higher than the sustain  
pedal. (That's regardless of whether the pivoting of the damper tray  
by the sustain pedal is adding to the lift of what damper levers the  
key ends may already be lifting when the sustain pedal "kicks in".)

While the damper up-stop rail shouldn't be so low as to interfere  
with the underlever motion (whatever's driving it), it shouldn't be  
so high that there's a significant gap between the key end's highest  
lift and where the up-stop rail stops the underlever. On a firm blow   
the damper will continue to fly upwards after the key end reaches the  
end of its stroke. It will then bang into the up-stop rail, which  
will absorb some of the energy, but most will be there with the  
underlever after it ricochets off the up-stop rail and heads straight  
back down for the key end.

The energy of that collision is the same regardless of how high or  
low the up-stop rail is set. What does change is the time delay  
between the shock of the key front bottoming out and the shock of the  
returning underlever hitting the other end of the key. Nice to get  
those two done with in fairly short order.

The key end is the lift which is the least independent of other parts  
of the regulation. I set my sustain lever blocking and the sostenuto  
rail height and pittman travel in relationship to the key end lift.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.
wbps at vermontel.net

"Round here we don't talk unless we can improve on the silence."
     ...........Ron Rude, local Public Radio Commentator.
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