Upper Register Sustain

[WurlieNewbie]

Hey guys.  The last few notes on the upper register of my 200 are not dampening and are sustaining too long.  I read a quick fix about turning the damper screw in the back counter clockwise to fix this. 

However, upon closer inspection, the last few notes don't have dampers!  Will turning the screw still work?

Thanks.

[OZDOC]

The last 5 notes have no dampers. So altering the screws will not alter the sustain. These 5 notes are intended to sustain - the duration of sustain on these notes is generally fairly short.
In some reed and tine pianos the makers add extra mass to the mounts or resonators of these upper notes in order to get the sustain up to an acceptable level.
David

[pianotuner steveo]

Yes, even acoustic pianos are like this too, but it's far more notes. People complain of this all the time.
There is nothing that can be done.

[WurlieNewbie]

Wow.  That's a shame because the notes in question (G# and A) are sustaining particularly longer than the others. Oh well, the joys of vintage gear!  Thanks, guys.

[OZDOC]

All is not lost.
The excellent sustain of these notes indicates that they are good reeds with excellent coupling to the mounting chassis.
There are a couple of things you can try - however, I've never tried them, so report back to the forum if you do.
The easiest would be to get a lump of Blu-Tac or chewing gum and stick it on the base of the reed a little out from the screw. The theory is to provide a small amount of damping permanently to the reed without significantly altering the reed weight.
Another possibility is to get some thick felt and cut a strip that you can lay across the bases of the last 5 reeds. You may need to tape this in place and weight it slightly.
A more difficult experiment would be to take the reed out and put a very thin shim of bond paper between it and the chassis. This may get you to a point where the coupling to the chassis is sufficiently impaired that the note has a shorter ring. But getting the reed back correctly aligned in the pickup and placed so it is still in tune could be a challenge.
David

[pianotuner steveo]

David, won't the shim break the ground connection? Or alter it enough to cause an audio issue? ( the reed bolt should still ground it, but not perfectly)

[OZDOC]

Good question. I've never needed to try any of the suggestions I've made above. I would think that the downward force on the fastener head would need to be so great to ensure good resonance of the reed that the electrical connection would be certain.  David