Corey Mwamba

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Entries for 28th Jun 2020

Today is vibraphone maintenance day. One of the damper bar pivot arms had snapped during a GIO online session. I taped it up as a quick fix during the session, and had meant to get around to it later. The break was clean; I had thought of using Sugru to fix it, but that was useless. But the application of a redundant L-shaped bracket from some cabinet furniture and some Duck Tape have done the job!

Here's the solution from above

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I also used some large washers for the screws to give slightly more support.

And from below

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The next main job (after replacing some of the cords) is refreshing the felt of the damper bar.

As the bars rest on the felt, the material becomes compressed and indentations can be seen in the felt.

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To fix this, I use a cheap steam iron. Unhook the bars out of the way, fill the iron with water, set the iron's heat to "linen", and get to work.

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It doesn't take long to see the effect. Leave the felt to dry though!

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