Rebuilding a Chickering Grand circa 1902, "F" scale (63 tenor-treble unisons.) It seems to have been restrung once before, and that technician put no understring felt between the agraffes and the tuning pins, where there is a gradual 1/2" ramp in the plate leading up to the pins, with the wires pressing hard against the ramp. I know some techs prefer to avoid felt on a ramp, allowing the string to slide directly against the metal plate, because ramps like that can cause the wires to "hang up" and jump during tuning, and the felt can increase the drag, making the tuning even harder.
I have no reference for whether or not this 1902 Chickering originally had understring felt on the ramp...perhaps one of you who has restrung even more pianos than me (I've done about 750) knows whether felt was originally there. Of course, for cosmetics, my tendency would be to add some nice thin red understring felt across the whole width of the plate, but I don't want to risk increasing string drag & hanging up if it doesn't belong there.
Thanks friends.
