Strip muting methods

[Ron Nossaman]

>I do essentially the same thing with my fingers but only 3-4 dampers at a time
>as I push the strip mute down.  I just felt this sheet would be too cumbersome
>to carry with me to each tuning, although there may be those who use and like
>it.  I haven't seen it for sale lately.
>
>Clyde Hollinger

>>
>> I know a guy who strip-mutes all the piano.  He puts the strip in and
>> presses it down below the dampers with a special "straight thing" so they
>> don´t get in the way.  
>> Kristinn Leifsson


I strip the whole piano, and use a tapered strip of action cloth in the
treble. It's about 1/2" wide at one end, graduated to about 5/16" at the
other. In the last section, I put the narrow end to the left, just above
the dampers, and snugged down against them. If the strip width is right,
the hammers will just clear, at least enough to strike the strings. During
tuning, the dampers still work, the hammers still hit the strings, and I
don't have to pull the strip from under the dampers as I go. Some pianos
have more clearance between the dampers and hammers in the treble. Baldwins
seem to be the ones that give you the least room to work (not that that's
bad, just an observation), but I only rarely have to resort to pushing the
strip down behind the dampers. In a grand, I use the same strip and put the
wide end to the left. I carry enough junk as it is, so I like to keep the
tuning implementia to a minimum, and I tend to like methods that are simple
enough for me to work them. FWIW

Ron N