lead weights

[Newton Hunt]

>  I can't imagine any one would notice a 50 or so gram increase in touchweight.  
> Pat W rpt

Pat, a good pianist will notice a five gram difference and some mat
notice even less.  Most keys are set at about 50 grams down weight. 
Double that and you will notice the difference.

Damper efficiency is more related to location, quality of material and
proper seating.

Pluck the strings will the damper is down.  If you notice that one
string is less muted than the others then one leg of a trichord is too
thick (massage it with pliers(, or one felt is exerting more pressure
on the string than the other (lift and tilt the damper to bend the
wire a little and pluck again(.

Dampers rely on weight, spring action (if a spring), on the resilience
of the felt and felt location.

Take two pieces of felt and set the damper lever high enough so the
key will not lift it then move the felts back and forth to find the
optimum location for the two felts.  Glue the felts on at those
locations.

CHange the felts if you suspect they are not well formed or cut, too
hard or not of the optimum length, usually 7/8" to 1", or so.

Springs act faster than gravity in holding down a damper.  The string
will vibrate up and down and the spring action will absorb a lot of
energy.  Lead weights are desirable but only 8 to 15 grams per lever. 
More than that will effect touch weight.

Work with one damper, even remove the adjacent dampers so you can see
and get your fingers in there, and get that one damper to work
properly then duplicate the process on all the others.

The bottom of the middle section is the worst place to work and
easiest to mess up.

Often by bending the wire at 90 degrees so the damper is moved toward
the keys will allow more, longer felts and more placement options. 
For this you would need a new damper head and a long wire.

Dampers must sit upon as many coincidental anti nodes as possible for
them to work right.

		Newton