<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16481" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Hi John,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Nice meeting you at KC!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>I think peeling off would be trouble.  For starters, you'd have to go through and reset all the damper timing.  Unless of course you were lucky enough to have a piano in which all the dampers were lifting late, then it might solve two problems.  ;-]</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>William R. Monroe</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV><BR></DIV>You can "fluff up" the crusty damper felt with an emery board or something similar. I wouldn't leave any grooves in the damper felt before reinstallation -- otherwise, it would indeed take hours. Could you also peel off a layer of the flat felts if there were deep grooves? <BR><BR>JF<BR><BR> <DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 6/28/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Dean May</B> <<A href="mailto:deanmay@pianorebuilders.com">deanmay@pianorebuilders.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">I'll second that. I never touch a damper flange screw on worn dampers if<BR>there are no problems. If you tighten them or take them off and reinstall,<BR>the flange will likely move slightly and the grooves will no longer line up <BR>with the strings. The result is ringing dampers that you can spend hours<BR>fussing with trying to reseat the worn grooves.<BR><BR><BR>Dean<BR><BR>Dean May   <BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>