<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><br>Hi All,<br><br>Well it's deja vu for me. I thought I'd learned my lesson the last time this happened. I get a call for a tuning and "pedal repair". When I arrive the damper pedal rod is engaged but the pedal regulated with so much play as never to reach damper lift. Easy fix, regulate pedal, achieve damper lift. I then suddenly notice copious bleedthrough. I point out the "echo" to the customer and say the dampers are old and misaligned, and another technician must have sacrificed pedal play for quieting the bleedthrough. I would leave it with pedal play, but if the "echo" bothered her I would come back free of charge and try to minimize it.<br><br>She does call, and I do return. This time I back the pedal all the way to where it was when I first met the piano. At this point I have not touched a single damper head, or damper wire. The damper lift rod is miles from any damper lever, so all dampers are seated.And still the massive echo. I neglected to play the piano before regulating the pedal on my very first visit, so I don't recall if it had the bleedthrough then. But intellectually I know, tuning the piano as I did, and pedal regulation could not have caused this pervasive damper bleeding. I try to delicately approach the issue, essentially inquiring "are you sure this echo wasn't there before"... "no, I DEFINITELY would have noticed it, I can't even play it" and the implied "what did you do to my piano!".... <br>The one previous time I reached this kind of exchange I stubbornly stuck to my intellectual conclusion that anything I could have done during tuning would not have affected the dampers this much, and if the client wants to remedy the ailing dampers I would be happy to help but they'll have to pay for it. Now I am hopefully a little wiser, and would like to keep my customers so I said "don't worry, this is my problem not yours, I'm not done here until the problem is fixed..."<br><br>Three hours later (of second visit to house), every damper is seated. When I push each string, the damper follows, showing me that it is bearing against the string, and there is sufficient tension if the damper head follows. I strengthened each damper spring in the bass and low tenor for good measure, requiring that I remove the spinnet action, which is so much fun. I even tried needling a few offensive dampers. This is a Baldwin Spinnet from the 60s. The dampers are a little compacted, but nothing spilled on them, and not too hard or ratty. The real killer is that with a slow chromatic check, no single note rings noticeably (play a note, press hand against string, no change in echo). Laying a forearm across all the strings in tenor does not change the echo. Nor a forearm across bass, unless you really push, and then the echo does die. This for me is to assess if it is indeed string noise, or soundboard/backscale noise, but its so loud it must be string noise. If I play a forte f-major in the tenor, and arm mute it, the echo sings loud. If I play same chord and arm mute the bass, lower than the notes I played, it does significantly dampen the echo. This is why I focused primarily on bass dampers. One or two of which I found mildly offensive, but all at least dampen adequately.<br><br>I would like advice on good upright damping. But also on this customer quandary, when you reach a juncture where you as the technician feel certain the piano has a chronic ailment that predated your ever meeting it, and the client feeling you caused categorical damper failure just by tuning. Of course now, I have removed the action, and replaced it, and bent many damper wires, so now my actions really could have "caused" or at least worsened the problem (although I did so methodically and with the intention of improving the symptoms) I can no longer say, I never touched the dampers, not my fault. How much free time to I give here, for a happy customer? How does one establish professional expertise and trust, without saying "its not my fault, so not my problem"?<br><br><br>Thank you tuner support group!<br><br>Greg Arnold<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.welltemperedtuning.com">www.welltemperedtuning.com</a></span><br></div></div><br> <hr size=1>Looking for a deal? <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=47094/*http://farechase.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTFicDJoNDllBF9TAzk3NDA3NTg5BHBvcwMxMwRzZWMDZ3JvdXBzBHNsawNlbWFpbC1uY20-">Find great prices on flights and hotels</a> with Yahoo! FareChase.</body></html>