Damper Lever Spoon Pad/Cloth

Jeff Tanner jtanner@mozart.music.sc.edu
Fri Jul 5 11:16 MDT 2002


Hi Michelle,
I've got 30 Baldwin uprights (15 Hamiltons and 15 6000s) we bought new in
1995 when we moved into our building.  By the time I came on board in 1998,
damper regulation with key lift was already awful, particularly in the low
tenor on most if not all of them, but of the older (70s) Hamilton models we
have, the problem does not seem to be so evident.  It was bad enough (after
only 3 years) that when muting the outside unisons with a strip, the middle
string was so muffled that you could not tune it, due to the damper wedge
not clearing the string.  I've noticed this on other Baldwins I've serviced
in years past, and it seems to be some sort of either premature wear on the
damper lift cloth, or the cloth is so sparse that it compacts quickly after
moderate usage.  It is more concentrated in the area of triple unison
wedges.  The wedges also are severely compacted, adding to later and later
lift with the key.  I've removed several of the dampers and found deep
gouges where the spoons press against the felt.  It was suggested by one
technician on this list (forgive me, the name of whoever suggested this
escapes me) that the spoons were not properly polished at the factory, and
actually tearing out the felt.  But for all of them?  I have not observed
whether the spoons contain the residue.  I did remove one wippen the other
day, and the spoon on this particular wippen was quite smooth.

I'm also recently realizing how spongy front rail cloth punchings in our
Baldwin grands of the same vintage (1995) are.  The amount of "after-after
touch" is amazing.  I've had to reduce key dip to smaller than 3/8", with
hammer shanks laying on the rails at the lowest point the rail can be
adjusted to be able to reduce after touch enough to stop after touch
blocking.

I wonder then, if this is not a product of inferior cloth being used also
on the damper lever, rather than spoons being rough.

I have turned damper spoon pads (or damper lifter felt?) upside down in
years past, but I'm not quite sure I'd know what kind of cloth would be
best to order to replace them.

Jeff



>It's Michelle here... as I posted before... anyone see this on upright
>spoons??  I don't know of many who replace damper spoon pads that much....
>I saw the same thing on a Baldwin Hamilton and just recently, a Steinway
>upright..
>
>
>( Please keep the previously mentioned upright jokes to a minimum.)
>
>:) michelle --On Wed, Jul 3, 2002 2:45 PM -0500 "Thomas D. Seay, III"
><t.seay@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>

Jeff Tanner
Piano Technician
School of Music
813 Assembly ST
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803)-777-4392 (phone)




This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC