Upright Damper Replacement

[jolly roger]

Hi Terry,
              For verticals we modify the system to accept Yamaha U3
dampers.    The bass is nice tri block material, enough tri cord wedges to
get up to about mid C, can't remember exactly.  ( becoming and old fuddy
duddy. <G>)    Treble dampers are double felt that is sewn.   
Excellent material and really fast shut down.   Hardly any bleed, if you
add taping off the back scales.  3 over and under dampers for the tenor
transitior, if needed.  .
We order 3 sets at a time so we can mix and match, uni cords to bi cords
etc.  It will do 2 pianos.

We configure the dowel lengths to get every thing even, after running the
treble blocks thro' the band saw and adding a felt pad to glue the dowel
to.  We use a nice dollop of PVC-E glue to form a collar around the around
the dowel.  The felt pad gives a little hinge effect and helps settle the
damper quickly..

Before starting it is important to rebush the hanger bushings and align the
hangers to get even lift, and equal and even distance of the damper wire
from the string.
We also change the damper rod felt on the damper levers.

The difference it makes to the old Heintzman 52" pianos is like night and
day.  Do lots of measuring and double checking,  before cutting.   Ops how
do I know?  I will never tell.

Have fun.

Roger



At 10:34 AM 8/30/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi gang. Bill Spurlock wrote an article in the Journal in '94 about upright
>damper replacement. The bottom line was that he said that he found that many
>or most old uprights had bass dampers that were too short and he had the
>best luck with dampers that were from 2 to 2-1/2 inches long, equipped with
>three pieces of 5/8" long wedges. He described how he made his own dampers
>(making the little boards and gluing the dampers onto new dowel damper
>heads) and the process he uses to determine what size will work the best for
>any particular piano.
>
>Have any of you gone this route? Or know anyone that has? Is this generally
>a good way to go about getting good working new dampers on an old upright? I
>think most of what Bill Spurlock writes is pretty much right on target, but
>just looking for a second opinion. This is my first upright damper job, so
>it's not as if I gonna draw upon my own personal vast resources of
>experience. Thanks.
>
>Also, he does not mention using the dowel damper heads in the tenor, but
>does suggest that some of the first strings in the low tenor often benefit
>from a longer damper. Can I trust that there is nothing wrong with using the
>dowel damper heads in this area? And is there anything wrong with making
>your own dampers for all the treble strings (that originally had dampers)
>and mounting them on dowel damper heads? Thanks again!
>
>Terry Farrell
>