I met Ms. Lassi on Facebook. She is not just a tuner in Finland — she is president of the Pianotechnician's Association. She mentioned that she sees a lot of birdcage pianos and I asked her to explain how she mutes them during tuning.
Oh yes... the "birdcage" pianos are a bit challenging :) Some of them are just old and not so good, but I've noticed that Julius Bluthner over-damper pianos are actually very good quality. They seem to have made them still, when others had already started the normal action style. I have a few of them at my regular customers, and they are really quite nice to tune. Of course the dampers don't work as well as in normal action, but the sound and quality are pretty nice. I usually put the felt strip between the strings above the damper system, as far as it goes - maybe just one and a half octaves in the middle (and the whole bass part, too). After that I use the long nylon wedge I use for the treble in normal uprights, sticking it in between the damper wires and hammer shanks. It is a bit slow, but doable. After doing it for a while, you sort of get the hang of it, and can move the wedge to the next one just listening to the noise it makes when you scrape it against the strings, knowing where you are with it :) But, usually it takes a bit bending down and trying to see where the strings are, and with the felt strip, looking from the top to see which strings the hammer is hitting, so it's a bit tiring for the back. You should try it one day, especially if you meet a good quality "birdcage" piano. The customer would be so happy to finally get it in tune :) And especially if you happen to see a Bluthner over-damper piano - those are really very nice to work with, compared to all other "birdcage" pianos I've ever met.
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