damper problem (probably just stupidity on my part)

[Tvak@aol.com]

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List

I don't think anyone can help me with this, but here goes...

I replaced the damper felts on an Acrosonic spinet.   My initial diagnosis 
and decision to replace the damper felts was based on the familiar sound of 
ringing after notes were played.   I did notice that the spoons were lifting most 
of the dampers very early, preventing some of the dampers from having good 
contact pressure with the string, but I found a few that were OK and when I 
checked them, they didn't dampen very well, either, so I decided that the felt 
(which was original to this 1940s piano) needed replacing.   It was my hope that 
the additional height from the new felt would remedy the spoon lift timing, but 
if not I was ready to regulate those suckers, too.

When I put the action back in the piano I found that the dampening is not 
much better.   But why?
     1. There is follow through on all the dampers.   (In case I'm not clear, 
I mean that the damper will
          move with the string when the string is pressed toward the 
soundboard, indicating that there     
          is proper pressure for the damper to dampen the string.)
     2. The spoons are indeed lifting at the proper time, and so they are not 
impeding the damper levers from pressing                against the strings.  
  (There is follow through.) 
     3. The damper pedal is not holding the dampers away from the strings.   
(Again, there is follow 
          through.)
     4. The dampers are seated well on the strings.   It's not a string level 
issue.   (It's not one of the
          three strings on a trichord, for instance.   It's all of them 
equally.)
     5. The dampers are aligned to the strings properly.   The bichords 
dampen both strings equally, the trichords dampen all           three equally.   
Just not enough, it seems.

They do all dampen somewhat.   I mean, it's not like the pedal is down.   But 
there is definitely sound after the keys are returned to the up position.   
It sounds just about the same as it did before I replaced them!   (A second 
question might be, who among you would charge this woman for your work?   I 
won't, until I can get it to sound better.)

I did file the hammers, which were heavily groovy, man.   I didn't change the 
hammer blow distance though, due to the spoons initially being on the early 
side, I thought it was best to just leave it as is.   I was happy that the 
spoon lift was OK with the new damper felts.   I hate regulating spoons.   I 
didn't do anything else to the piano, other than replace a few bridle straps.
     
I'm going back on Saturday to check it out, and see if perhaps the felt has 
started to conform to the contour of the strings and dampen better, but if they 
don't, then what?   I'll try dampening all the treble strings that have no 
dampers with a towel and see if the ringing goes away, but I don't think it 
will.

Any ideas?   Is there something I've not thought of?   Any diagnostic 
procedures that might shed light on this?

Thanks in advance, 

Tom Sivak
Chicago PTG Associate

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