[pianotech] Replacing dampers on a Steinway Upright

[Encore Pianos]

No, I was not alive in 1902, although some of the young teenagers I know are
certain that I was :-)   So I surmise from inference based on experience
where I have duplicated the system that was there to the best of abilities
on a Steinway upright, many times in the past.  And my experience has been,
even with good felt, proper spring tension, damper seating, etc. etc., there
is a limit to how well these systems can damp, which is largely related to
the too small dampers in the bass and tenor.  As I said before, this will be
most notable in the ghosting in the bass dampers and a less quick shutoff
than desired.  And if one wants to challenge my skills, I will also say that
I have often noticed these same issues with good damper work by other people
where they have essentially duplicated what was there with careful work.  On
the other hand, I regularly listened to and admired the efficient damping of
the Yamaha uprights.  Much better than what I would hear on Steinways or
other older uprights.  From that comparison I began doing these damper  mods
20 plus years ago.  

Fundamentally, there is not too much that is different about damping a
Yamaha U-3 and a 52 inch Steinway upright or most other old uprights, other
than the details of numbers of monochords, bichords, trichords and such.
They are more or less the same, and a well-designed damper system will work
well on all of them, and be quite similar if we are talking about uprights
that are more or less the same size.  

Since doing these kinds of mods on Steinway uprights and other makes, the
result has always been a significant improvement in damping over what was
there originally.   So I think it a reasonable inference based upon success.
Until we improve time travel, that is as much as any of us can do.  

Please note that the modern Steinway K-52 damper system is different from
the 1902 codger, and is more like what I have described than not .  Larger,
split dampers throughout.  One can infer from the changes that STEINWAY made
that they felt the system needed to be improved, otherwise why would they
have bothered?  Nor would I be bothering if I (and my customers) didn't feel
that we were getting a level of improvement to justify the effort.  

It's not speculation, it's results based on experience.  Try it, you might
be surprised.

As for my comment about it not being rocket science, I did not mean it to be
dismissive and disrespectful.    All I meant to say is that it is not that
hard to do.  There is a learning curve associated with doing something new
the first time, but I believe most techs could do this without too much
trouble if they were to make the effort.  And I am hardly the only person
who makes these kinds of mods.  

I leave it to you to make your own judgments based upon your own native
intelligence and experience.  

With respect, 

Will



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Mr. Mac's
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 11:24 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing dampers on a Steinway Upright


On Feb 7, 2011, at 10:04 AM, Encore Pianos wrote:

> . By modern standards of damper system design, one could not say that
these pianos damped particularly well when they were new in 1902, even the
Steinways. .

Will,

How can anyone presuppose the particular operation
   that any system didn't work well when new?

1902 ... no one knows, because no one in the piano industry
   is alive today to testify.

Strictly speculation at best.

Keith McGavern