another dampp-chaser thought/question

[Andrew & Rebeca Anderson]

Hi John,
Photographing the install takes lots of light considering that you want a 
picture of black parts on black beams.  In my case it is worse because I 
just put an !*#%&~undercover under my wife's piano.  I'm going to invest in 
a lot of black tacks for my next undercover job.  Has anyone tried drilling 
ventilation holes between the board behind the damper tray and the 
conditioned cavity between the beams?  I've been very tempted while easing 
damper flanges, Wurlitzer by Samick strikes again.

I think the only reason to do an under the beams installation is when there 
is not enough room between the beams to fit the humidifier.  I figure to 
keep about 3/8" between the baffle and the ribs of the soundboard.  On some 
pianos that is above the beams and on some that is between the beams.  I 
don't let the bars rest on the beams as that is a potential source of 
buzzing.  Cut them short if you need to.

The electrical cords come folded and tied when you get them.  Just pull out 
enough to reach and then tighten the twist tie.  I then put a wire clip 
close to this coil and fasten to the side of a beam.  Yes they say that 
those can form something like resistance coils when you're welding but the 
wattage is much lower, I don't think it's and issue with these cords.  So 
far I've run the cords over the beams.  If anything looks too close (like 
ribs) I re-route to avoid and use the clips to secure the wires from the 
sides of the beams.

Wouldn't unisons going out be more of a rendering issue?  Perhaps not if it 
was dry.  You will enjoy the stability that comes when this system is kept 
running.

Good luck,
Andrew


At 08:17 PM 10/11/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I did my first dampp-chaser installation on Sat. I noticed today that the 
>piano's unisons were more off-tune compared to Sat. than they were on Sat. 
>compared to when I tuned it 1-1/2 months ago. Looks like it's doing 
>something :)
>
>In any case, I was a bit uncertain about something. The instructions said 
>to do an under-the-beams installation if there wasn't enough clearance for 
>the humidifier baffle. But it didn't say what enough clearance was, so I 
>presumed this meant "if it doesn't fit". There is between 1/4"-1/8" 
>clearance above the baffle. Is this enough?
>
>I was also curious if anyone was willing to post a picture of their 
>techniques to hide the extra cords.
>
>Thanks.
>
>- John Silva, P.T. sans R
>
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