| The Damper System is to the piano what the brakes are to a car and it is integrally connected to the action and strings. While everything else in the piano is designed to produce sound, directly or indirectly; the dampers allow us, through our hands or feet, to sustain the sound or shut it down, quickly and efficiently at will. It is important that the dampers are sufficient enough to extinguish the vibrating string without adding too much weight to the back of the key lever. They must also operate with as little noise as possible. |  |
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There are several parts to the Damper System listed as follows from the bottom up:
The Pedal Lyre: Pedals, cushions, pedal lyre guide rods, lyre braces. The Trapwork: Levers attached to the bottom of the piano that connect the pedals to their functions of sustain, sostenuto, action shift (soft pedal), and sometimes bass sustain. The Backaction: A system of second-class levers that are lifted individually by their corresponding keystick or as a whole by the damper tray. These underlevers may contain tabs that can be lifted individually by the sostenuto blade which in turn allows the player to sustain selected notes with the sostenuto pedal while playing staccato on top manually. The Guide Rails: Wooden rails fastened to the belly rail that guide the damper wires with felt bushings so that the dampers may be accurately centered over the strings, travel vertically, and suspend over the strings without wavering while the key is being depressed. The Dampers: Damper wires, heads and felts. Connects to the underlever at the bottom of the wire and sits upon the string with a strip of felt that is glued onto a wooden block. The felts must be of the correct density, size and placement to prevent the string from sympathetically overinging, and to shut the sound down after the key has been released. |
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At Absolute Piano, every detail of this entire mechanism is meticulously inspected and addressed. Our process is listed below but in short our goal is to replace or restore every part so that everything not only looks or is brand new but works efficiently without squeaks or malfunction and remains so for years to come. Click on links below for more information and/or photos. |
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