Capo Bar Dressing

[Michael Wathen 556-9565]

My preference for capo bars is a question mark.  The best system I have seen is
that of the SD-10 and the SF-10 Baldwins.  1/16" seems about right.  Next chance
I get I'll measure it.

I have dressed many capo bars in my time but I have to say that my motivation
for my method has been lacking until recently.  If have have gotten good results
it has probably been more the result of chance than that of calculation.

I have also probably created more problems than I have fixed.  Several years ago
I felt proud to have discovered a roughly cast capo that had not been dressed at
all in a Steinway D from the mid sixties.  I was going to get it right I
carefully filed and checked and refiled then continued dressing the bar with
various grades of emery cloth.  This piano was going to be so improved!  I had
been tuning it for nearly ten years.  When all was put back together it did
sound better than it had but it was still a big letdown.  The capo section was
full of zingers.  I tried the big Robinson lever and numerous other remedies all
to no avail.  IN the end we jammed little mutes in duplex which killed the
zingers and the sound.  Now about three years later it is sounding better and
many of the zingers have disappeared probably due to the factors mentioned in my
last post to Piano Tech.

Michael Wathen