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Leaving sustain engaged when inactive/in storage? (felt longevity)

Started by kevinplaystheblues, October 16, 2024, 07:26:56 PM

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kevinplaystheblues

Just wondering if anyone has considered or does leave their damper arm engaged when the piano is not being played?

I've just been through a full felt replacement and now I am back to putting it all together. As I reached back to disengage the dampers by hand for the 100th time...or was it when I was looking at the heavily indented old felts for the 100th time...or was it when I read my 100th "how and when to service your rhodes" articles....not sure, but either way it hit me: surely resting firmly against the tine 23 hours a day is degrading these felts more than the hour each day that they come off and on the tine repeatedly while playing?

Thoughts?

HappyTinkerer

"Just wondering if anyone has considered or does leave their damper arm engaged when the piano is not being played?"
That is an interesting thought.
But I am not sure what you mean by "damper arm". Can you please refer the part numer/name in https://www.fenderrhodes.com/org/manual/ch2.html?
I am not aware that there is the possibility to dis-/engage anything in the damper mechanism without dismantling the Rhodes.

Apart from that, damper felts in conventional pianos and grand pianos have been pressing on the strings for centuries and no one felt the need to fix this. But that doesn't mean there is no room for improvement.

rhodesworks

Just leaave it alone. Were you to disengage the felt pads from the tines you'd be putting more pressure on the damper arms. You're just trading one (very miniscule) problem for another.