Damper Guides

Wetting the Old Cloth for Removal

 The damper guides were the next on the agenda.

Damper guides are simply wooden strips which are screwed into the very front of the soundboard.  They have a series of small holes drilled into them which is padded with bushing cloth.  The damper wires (which make up part of the actual damper - I haven't got onto this stage yet in the blog) pass through these holes, which space the dampers correctly to their corresponding strings.

Pulling New Bushing Cloth Through The Holes

Similar to the centre pins which act as joints on a piano, the bushing cloth in these guide rails can sometimes get worn, causing excessive sideways motion of the damper, or can swell due to changes in humidity and grip onto the wire, stopping the movement of the damper.  Both of these faults can cause poor damping.

The old cloth is therefore removed, and new cloth inserted as shown by the pictures opposite.

Glued, Pulled Through, then Trimmed

 As well as this, I also cleaned the wood as best as I could as it looked very grubby, and these guide rails are seen easily once the piano is complete.  On this piano, aesthetics has not been budgeted for, but things like this would look really unsightly to me if I left them how they were when came out the piano

Checking the Wire Passes Correctly