Help with damper adjustment

[Kim Jinkings]

Hi guys,
first of all,  I want to say that I'm really thankfull for this forum and with your help I acomplished a lot with my first rhodes (MKV).
Now I really like my rhodes sound, but I can't achieve proper damper on the bass register.
The dampers bounce as the hammers bounce and make those after touch noises.
I read a lot about it in the forum and in the Manual. I did try the two ways to bend the dampers, replace the damper felts. And now I don't know what to do. Any sugestions?
http://soundcloud.com/kimjinkings/rhodesdamper#

[pianotuner steveo]

Does adjusting the escapement (tine height) help at all?

Maybe you have shims that are too thick on the bass side?

[Ben Bove]

Hi Kim!  The Mark V dampers are notoriously poor in the low register after time.  They aren't capable in my opinion of effectively stopping the tines in the longer bass notes, you'll get ringing or bouncing.

What I advise is to make sure they're perfectly straight, or even bent a little upwards where the individual thin shafts meet up with the main base.  Unscrew your harp and lift out of the way, remove the damper bar, and then you'll see where the damper sections are screwed into the action rail.  Remove the 2 screws for each section in the low register, lightly pull the damper sections out, and see if the individual shafts are straight (again especially where they join with the base).  This will definitely help any bouncing dampers that don't have enough tension from improper bending over the years.

If this is still not giving you enough dampening power (which often is the case), you may want to buy thicker production felts, available from one of the many online vintage retailers.  You'll have to adjust the damper arms as the felts will probably be taller, but I feel this is a common problem with the "curly felts" on the Mark Vs.

[Kim Jinkings]

Thanks guys,

Steveo,
The escapement did'nt help.
By shims, Do you mean the papers between the key pin and the key? I'm gonna try that.

Bjammerz,
I never had unscrew the damper module...I'll try.
But I did replace the felts for new ones. What happen is that the new ones were really tall and massed up with my action, the bridal strips got too loose. So I cut the felts in the same height as the older ones. Since the action was pretty good...
Do you think lubing the pedestal felts can help with the bounce?

[pianotuner steveo]

No, not the shims under the keys, the harp shims.(there may not be any)
The height of the harp/ tines can affect damping

[Miguel Tuna]

The damping in my suitcase was solved by simply unscrewing the top of the pedal pushroad, letting it go higher.

[David Aubke]

The dampers bounce as the hammers bounce and make those after touch noises.

Is installing back checks on a Mark V an option? I'm not familiar with their construction.

Doesn't this sound like something back checks would address?

[Kim Jinkings]

Does adjusting the escapement (tine height) help at all?

Maybe you have shims that are too thick on the bass side?

In the right side I got Two shims (one wood, one black) and int left-bass I got only the wood one.

[Kim Jinkings]

The dampers bounce as the hammers bounce and make those after touch noises.

Is installing back checks on a Mark V an option? I'm not familiar with their construction.

Doesn't this sound like something back checks would address?

My action is pretty good and I don't think worth to put another machanism to solve damper and maybe create other problems. What do you think?

[David Aubke]

I suggested back checks because their purpose is to prevent the hammers from bouncing. No hammer bounce = no damper bounce.

[pianotuner steveo]

I feel that if back checks were needed in a rhodes they would have been installed at the factory.

Just my opinion.

It sounds like your shims are messed up, you should either have a pair or none on the same side, not just one.

Most pianos have none on the right and a pair on the left, I believe.

Try removing all of them  as an experiment and see if this helps.