Miracle Mod Option - Cam Felt or Pedestal Felt?

[Tim Hodges]

I'm going to be adding a miracle mod to a 1977 Rhodes (pre-pedestal felt mod) and I wanted to know what everyone's opinion was on the following:

When applying the miracle mod should I leave the cam felts in place and just leave the plastic bump bare on the wooden pedestal

or

Should I buy pedestal felt and apply it on the bump and remove the white cam felt instead.

Any insight would be appreciated, I've already done a miracle mod using the first method so I'm curious to know if it's better the second way.

Tim

[David Aubke]

Although I can't immediately cite sources, I've read several times that it's better to remove the felt from the cam and apply new material over the bump. This is what I did with a recent 1976. The old felt came off fairly easily using naphtha.


My guess is it doesn't make a tremendous difference.. maybe a slightly smaller contact patch when the felt is on the cam, which you'd think would be preferable.

[Ben Bove]

I was JUST going to make a post about this but haven't had the time!

I'll update that big miracle mod post I made later on.

I highly recommend removing the felts from the hammers, and reinstalling or putting new ones on the key pedestal.  The problem is you have to make sure the bump lines up perfectly with the curviture of the hammer.  if it's off slightly, you can either get the felt falling in front of the bump and making the keys lock up from playing, or if it's too far back the hammers come to rest much higher than they should, and stay slammed up against the tines and stop the notes dead.  I have seen this about 3 times so far with "just the bump" mods.  Will link this to the big thread later.  Trust me it'll save you time actually, if you have to redo the mod over again versus you just pull the felts first.

[pianotuner steveo]

I agree with bjammerz 1000%

The felt helps to hold the bumps onto the pedestals- less chance of them falling off if the felt is over the bumps.

[David Aubke]

The felt helps to hold the bumps onto the pedestals- less chance of them falling off if the felt is over the bumps.

This is a good point. I wouldn't expect them to stay put for long without the felt on top.

[koipond]

I started this mod and am about 1/3 done.  I glued the plastic bump bare on the wooden pedestal using pvc cement I had lying around.  I'm expecting the bumps to fall off; I'll update when they do.   

[Tim Hodges]

I started this mod and am about 1/3 done.  I glued the plastic bump bare on the wooden pedestal using pvc cement I had lying around.  I'm expecting the bumps to fall off; I'll update when they do.   

I did this mod on my 1975 Rhodes ages ago and they're still there, but as soon as my pedestal felt turns up I will be removing the cam felt anyway. Any suggestions for removing the felt easily? Steam?

[David Aubke]

Any suggestions for removing the felt easily? Steam?

Ahem

[Tim Hodges]

Any suggestions for removing the felt easily? Steam?

Ahem

Wow that was massively lazy of me! Thanks shadetree, it seems I'm not all here at the moment!

[Ben Bove]

As a point of reference, I made a large update to the miracle mod post found here:

http://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=4666.msg25948#msg25948