Square grand bichord damper felt supplier inquiry

Kurt KurtGearheart@comcast.net
Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:35:06 -0700


Greetings again all.

First, thanks to all who made suggestions about the Steinway D repetition 
springs and voicing problems. All good input and appreciated. Should 
relevant updates about all that come up I will certainly share it.

Now, today's question.

Preparing to rebuild the damper system on the square grand I've been 
rebuilding.

There are two strings per note throughout the piano, except of course for 
the low bass.

The old original dampers were of the flat pad variety, and did not dampen 
for sh*t. Truly pathetic performance.

I have completely rebuilt the lifter rod system with all new parts and have 
reconfigured it to be far more precise than the original design.

Tests with bichord dampers indicate that that type will work far better 
than flat pad dampers. (duh!!!)

Having gotten a sense that the various people here know just about 
everything, (in a collective sense that is, not a trace of sarcasm here), I 
would appreciate advice on where to get the absolute best quality grand 
damper felts, emphasis on bichords.

I feel safe in assuming that there may indeed be better quality felts than 
what is to be found in the Schaff catalog. You may read a trace of dry 
sardonicism into that statement if you wish.

(I have been mostly engaged in concert and residential tuning/regulation 
for, gosh, decades and have fallen far out of the total rebuilding aspect 
loop for the most part. Although I know damn well what parts ARE and what 
they DO, I frequently am at a loss what the rest of the world CALLS those 
parts. "I gotta replace those things there ma'am. What are they called? I 
dunno, but they GOTTA be replaced." The inchoate and inarticulate shame!)

;-)

Since the soundboard/bridge/stringing phase went so stunningly well, I have 
a very very powerful, loud piano with long sustain to tame, with but wee 
bits of compressed sheep hair to accomplish that mission.

So... who makes killer quality grand damper bichord damper felts?

Thanks in advance.


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