birdcages

[Graeme Harvey]

Hi Mark,

We have quite a few of these things in this country. (:^(
I tend to slip the action back and strip mute, then when ready to pull in
unisons, slip the strip out and run through with a papps wedge. I don't know
of a better or faster way. The position of the dampers prevents good
damping, however I came across on a few days ago where someone had replaced
a few of the bicord dampers with regular v felt and these dampers appeared
to work well, much better than the end-grain stuff normally used.

But, as these are mostly junk, I don't waste time on tuning or repairs other
than the obvious and simple remedies to obvious and simple problems.
The damper rail at the top can also be shifted in slightly should the
dampers be ineffective. Check also that the damper lift rail is not
prematurely lifting  or holding the dampers off the strings.

I've never heard any of these things sound anything like a decent
under-damped piano so don't stess out over it.

Cheers,

Graeme Harvey
New Plymouth NZ


----- Original Message -----
From: <bases-loaded@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 10:25 AM
Subject: birdcages


> Hello -
>
> After having the good fortune to have not run into a birdcage action in
> app. 10 years, I had the extreme misfortune to run into 2 of them this
> week.  I have basically two questions, although "what were they
> thinking?" also comes to mind.
>
> 1.  Do these actions ever damp well?  In both instances, the damper felt
> seemed soft enough, and was regulated properly, but the pianos sounded as
> if someone forgot to install dampers!
>
> 2.  What is the most sane way to tune these critters?  I actually had to
> lean the actions back and pluck strings in the center section, as it was
> impossible to get mutes in there.  Do you lean it back and strip mute the
> whole thing?  I can't imagine a process that isn't unwieldy...
>
> It is no great surprise to me that this design went out of favor 100
> years ago!
>
> Mark Potter
> bases-loaded@juno.com
>