<HTML><HEAD></HEAD> <BODY> More than= likely the problem is length of bass dampers.   The= first thing is checking if your arm against the bass strings= eliminates the overring when playing the tenor.   Read= Bill Spurlock's articles in the Journal on making= dampers... David I.     ----- Original message= ----------------------------------------> From: <<A= href="mailto:Tvak@aol.com">Tvak@aol.com</A>> To: <<A= href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A>> Rec= eived: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:33:26 EST Subject: damper problem= (probably just stupidity on my part) List I don't= think anyone can help me with this, but here goes... I= replaced the damper felts on an Acrosonic spinet.  My= initial diagnosis and decision to replace the damper felts was= based on the familiar sound of ringing after notes were= played.  I did notice that the spoons were lifting most of= the dampers very early, preventing some of the dampers from= having good contact pressure with the string, but I found a few= that were OK and when I checked them, they didn't dampen very= well, either, so I decided that the felt (which was original to= this 1940s piano) needed replacing.  It was my hope that= the additional height from the new felt would remedy the spoon= lift timing, but if not I was ready to regulate those suckers,= too. When I put the action back in the piano I found that= the dampening is not much better.  But= why?      1. There is follow through on= all the dampers.  (In case I'm not clear, I mean that the= damper will          = move with the string when the string is pressed toward the= soundboard, indicating that there    =           is proper= pressure for the damper to dampen the= string.)      2. The spoons are indeed= lifting at the proper time, and so they are not impeding the= damper levers from pressing     =           against the= strings.   (There is follow through.)=      3. The damper pedal is not holding= the dampers away from the strings.  (Again, there is follow=          = through.)      4. The dampers are seated= well on the strings.  It's not a string level issue. = (It's not one of the     =      three strings on a trichord, for= instance.  It's all of them= equally.)      5. The dampers are aligned= to the strings properly.  The bichords dampen both strings= equally, the trichords dampen all     =      three equally.  Just not enough,= it seems. They do all dampen somewhat.  I mean, it's= not like the pedal is down.  But there is definitely sound= after the keys are returned to the up position.  It sounds= just about the same as it did before I replaced them!  (A= second question might be, who among you would charge this woman= for your work?  I won't, until I can get it to sound= better.) I did file the hammers, which were heavily= groovy, man.  I didn't change the hammer blow distance= though, due to the spoons initially being on the early side, I= thought it was best to just leave it as is.  I was happy= that the spoon lift was OK with the new damper felts.  I= hate regulating spoons.  I didn't do anything else to the= piano, other than replace a few bridle= straps.      I'm going back on= Saturday to check it out, and see if perhaps the felt has= started to conform to the contour of the strings and dampen= better, but if they don't, then what?  I'll try dampening= all the treble strings that have no dampers with a towel and see= if the ringing goes away, but I don't think it will. Any= ideas?  Is there something I've not thought of?  Any= diagnostic procedures that might shed light on= this? Thanks in advance, Tom Sivak Chicago PTG= Associate </BODY></HTML>