I have a Yamaha Studio that has a squeaky dampers. It sounds like the individual damper springs are squeaking. I've tried to lube them with teflon and graphite, but neither worked. Any ideas?

Then it may be the contact between the damper lift rod and the damper lever felts that's causing the problem. In that case, you need to lubricate the lift rod with silicone or WD 40.

Mark Mandell www.pianosource.com

Caution on silicone: never use a silicone spray anywhere near the tuning pins on any piano. If you use silicone, apply it using a dropper or hypo-oiler. Silicone can render a pinblock untunable very quickly. For squeaks of this nature, try ProTek (available from PianoTek 1-800-347-3854).......Sam

Yes, you're quite right about the silicone which is why this particular operation is done with the action taken out.

In fact it would have to taken out anyway so as to gain the needed access to the lift rod.

Mark Mandell

If your dampers presist to squeek after you've tried some kink of oil or spray, you should try to get a hold of someone like a tuner. I once had squeeky dampers (or so I thought) but my piano tuner fixed the problem. I'm not sure what he did but the squeek itself came only when you pushed down onto sustaining pedal. Then I found out (from the tuner) that the actual squeeking was coming from something or other around the sustaining pedal when I pushed down on it. I also got the same squeeking noise when I pushed down the una corda pedal. Both problems were fixed. My point is, it may be something totaly different than you think it is.

BTW: Mine isn't a yamaha. Its a wurlitzer. But I don't think that it really matters in the particular discussion topic. Does it?

Thanks for all the replies. Ruled out the lift rod, because it still squeaked when I pulled the action out to lube the springs. Ruled out the key bed for the same reason. There is no felt where the spring rubs against the damper arm, and it appears the coating is worn away on the damper arm. I'm assuming this is causing the squeaking, but lubing the area hasn't helped. Tighted action brackets and damper rod screws and lubed everything. Still squeaks.

Bob--

Does this Yamaha have hammer return springs that fit into the rear of each hammer butt?
If so, this might even be the cause.

Some of these Yamahas did not have the return springs because they had a Schwander type action. If the hammer springs are of the type indicated above, you should compress the coils after you remove the other end that goes into the hammer butt grooves and see if that has any effect.

Mark www.pianosource.com

Been there done that

I believe that your squeeking is comming from friction on the DAMPER RETURN springs
Remember that a squeek is nothing more than a series of clicks. what you need to do is squirt a little wd-40 into the red cap that comes with the can and then take a little tiny paint (artist) brush and dip the tip into the liquid and CAREFULLY reach thru the action and by-passing the hammer shanks, apply a little liquid to the notch that the spring fits into to return the hammer. this takes a while, be careful. have patience. If that doesnt work put wd_40 on the end of the rod that comes from the pedal and goes vertically up to the action. sometimes the felt there gets kind nasty
good luck

Thanks Thomas, tried that, but used graphite. Maybe wd 40 will work better. I'll try it. In olden times, there was felt in that notch. I guess it got too expensive.

Bob--

Have you tried that approach I indicated. You need to remove the hammer return springs out of the grooves, then compress the coils a bit. I myself have had some success with that.

Mark

Thanks Mark.