Mute Rail

[Ronald R Shiflet]

Dear List,
	Sorry to leave you hanging like that.  I appreciate you keeping
me in line.
	I placed a strip of felt inside the piano between the hammers and
the strings to give them an idea of what the mute rail would sound like.
It killed the tone and volume.  They decided definately against that.
	We are going to be putting some foam between the backposts and
the soundboard.  We managed to try a test sample (like we did with the
felt) and it worked pretty good.  If we need, we'll graduate to a piece
of carpet and padding under the piano.  I doubt that it'll need more
than that.
	I found out that these new owners of the hotel don't own the
piano yet.  Apparently, the piano wasn't part of the sale.  They are
going to try and buy it from the previous owner.  That is why they've
been hesitant to do much here.
	I appreciate everyone's help.  I would have ordered in the mute
rail and installed it,  leaving a less than satisfied customer,  but
having tried a sample of felt first,  we decided not to do this.  I had
a backup plan B, C and D thanks to the list.  You  saved them some
money, saved me an unhappy customer and made me look good at the same
time.
	No this isn't totally resolved yet,  but we did manage to cut the
volume down without sacrificing the tone and we're on standby pending the
sale.
	Many thanks to all who responded.  I didn't think that I would
need the options but I did and the customer got to choose.

Ron Shiflet