Not enough dampers

[Phillip L Ford]

No offense John, but half the time I don't know what you're talking about.  I always imagined
that I had had above average exposure to pianos but before you mentioned them in this or
other posts I had never heard of a Lipp piano, a Keller action, a Fritz & Mayer action, a
Bechstein 8 (I have heard of Bechstein I think), etc.  Could you recommend some references
for remedial reading?

Phil F
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Phillip Ford
Piano Service & Restoration
1777 Yosemite Ave - 215
San Francisco, CA  94124


On Wed, 5 Dec 2001 09:12:58   
 John Delacour wrote:
>At 8:14 PM -0500 12/4/01, Phil Ryan wrote:
>
>>...What is the criteria for cutoff of dampers in the treble?  Can 
>>anything be done to mute this objectional ringing?
>
>Just more dampers.  The most I have come across are 73 on a Steinway 
>Vertgrand but my own 1905 Lipp upright has 72.  I've just taken in 
>another Lipp of 1912, identical in structure but with a Fritz & Mayer 
>action instead of a Keller.  This has only 68, and  that even number 
>is found on only a few good makes, the norm on most commercial pianos 
>being 65 in Europe through most of the century.
>
>When I was a child we had a Bechstein 8 upright in the north and a 
>5'9" Lipp grand in the south.  I can remember not liking the ringing 
>on of the Bechstein, though I had no idea what caused it and just put 
>it down to the fact it was an upright.
>
>The obvious answer would be to say they were all just cutting costs, 
>but I think probably there's a compromise between the disconcerting 
>break at the top and the contribution these undamped strings can make 
>to the overall bite of the tone.  I don't know and have never 
>analysed the question.  A colleague along the road was moaning to me 
>a few weeks ago that he'd been forced to extend the dampers on a 
>piano to get a sale, but its very rare for a customer to get that 
>fussy.  All the same, I think Wolfenden recommends 72 dampers and 
>that's what he will have put on the English Orchesrelle/Aeolian 
>Weber, which was a very nice piano when he had a hand in it and all 
>too rare.
>
>JD
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