replacing damper felts

[johnT]

hello , this is my first post so i hope i do it right.
can anyone explain why (upright) treble damper felts are in two halves and can they be replaced with one continuous felt?

[PianoGuy]

Yes.

No.

[Barrie Heaton]

hello , this is my first post so i hope i do it right.
can anyone explain why (upright) treble damper felts are in two halves and can they be replaced with one continuous felt?

its a bit like ABS Brakes on then off then on is more effective. You can put one continuous felt but you will not be happy with the ringing on in the harmonics

Barrie,

[PianoGuy]

Beautifully analogised Barrie!

[johnT]

thanks. I thought there must be a reason

[Brumtuner]

"its a bit like ABS Brakes on then off then on is more effective"


So, scuse my ignorance but what does the way a.b.s. brakes work have to do with the treble damper felts being in 2 parts? Are you suggesting that the 2 parts vibrate in sympathy with each other thereby causing a shuddering (a.b.s.style) 'braking' effect on the strings?

In my opinion, not very well analogised.

I'm only a 4th generation tuner with 30+yrs experience so go easy.

[Barrie Heaton]

OK not only treble dampers but all dampers are split (Ok there is the odd piano make) why? four termination points not 2 thus killing more harmonics and on some old German pianos you have six plus reverse fly dampers in the bass.

To be honest I find it easy to show than put it into words it's all to do with exciting some harmonics to kill dominant harmonics and killing dominant harmonics, when it works it works well when they are fitted wrong well we have all been there with harmonic ring on bass dampers

So the stop start of ABS stops the wheel faster the stop start in the dampers do the same because they allow parts of the string to vibrate longer that parts helps to stop the rest because of the above



Barrie,

[johnT]

so which one's the brake pedal again?

[Brumtuner]

The one which causes the divided damper felts to communicate with each other regarding shutting those frisky treble harmonics and then to basically whack themselves against the strings - 'you get that harmonic and I'll get this one, then you can get the following one by juddering off the first one and then I'll get the remaining ones - and all in a split second!

It has 'A.B.S.' stamped on it, too.