Have you missed something? Perhaps not. One of the "problems" with damping in some Steinways is that the piano puts out so much sound. Those two little blocks of felt just have a harder time with some than with others. Which sometimes leads to tone regulation... That said, I'll weigh in with a strong preference for Steinway OEM felts. It really wasn't that long ago that the R&D people evaluated the felts and selected what they wanted. Which, by the way, is (as best I know) slightly different in NY and Hamburg pianos. The Hamburg felt is reputedly softer, making it somewhat more efficient (faster damping), but in need of more frequent regulation. I'll also say that IMHO, apparent evenness is sometimes more important than speed (efficiency) in the scale. There are places where some dampers could be more efficient, only then the type of string changes and the damping efficiency changes discontinuously. The solution is, unfortunately, to reduce the effectiveness of damping on one side of the change. Truth is, some pianos have somewhat better damping than others. Inherently, it seems. I haven't taken the time to try to determine why. There are extraordinary measures that can help sometimes, but often it is enough to get the apparent shut-off to be as even as possible and then move on to something else that is more productive. On Tue, 24 Nov 2009, Stan Kroeker wrote: > Friends, > > Have just returned from my client's studio ... the 'B' with the > oinking/buzzing dampers. Thanks to your sage advice, the buzzing of damper > wires against strings (in the bichord section) was an easy fix. Adjusted the > 'pressure bends' to create some side-bearing against the guiderail bushings. > The challenge here, due to 'less-than-stellar' drilling of the guiderails > (uneven spacing), was that some had to bear against one side of the bushings, > some the other in order to have them rise vertically and as close as possible > to the center point between adjacent strings. > > Decisive damping was quite another issue and perhaps I might open up another > thread for discussion here: In spite of precise alignment (side-to-side, > fore-and-aft, vertical), almost all the bichords and the lowest 4 tenor > trichords still ring on for the 'split-second-too-long' that draws your > attention. I have fussed with the alignment, string spacing (on the > trichords), string level, damper wedge profile (squeezing to create a sharper > wedge) to the point of diminishing returns. I have listened to other similar > pianos, some of which display the same imprecise damping in this area ... > some less so. Have I missed something? > > This piano is a mid-70s 'B' (teflon) which has recently been retrofitted with > OEM Steinway parts, including damper action. The latter is clearly not > identical to the original (although the spacing and alignment worked out very > well) and I didn't think to compare the 'downweight' of the new levers to the > originals. On some of the offending dampers, a little more weight (applied > gently by finger) reduced the 'oink' ... but not all. > > Similar to ongoing discussion of the many choices available in aftermarket > hammers, would you mind sharing your preferences for currently available > damper felt? > > Regards, > > Stan Kroeker, RPT
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