Where can you buy the correct felt to make a gasket?

[maui_chimes]

I'm looking for the correct type of felt to use for a gasket on a vintage National. Where can you get the right material with the proper thickness & color?

[robbie]

hi there maui, I just contacted a billiard / pool table repairer and explained that I needed some felt similar to that fitted on their tables ,in my case he just gave me a metre square piece of it. that was the easy bit , cutting to size and fitting took a wee bit longer.............when fitted it knocked the edge off the " brash " sound

so just have a look in your telephone directory for a repair guy

good luck

regards

[petej]

sweeter would be a better word than brash sounding,i have a 31 Duolian without a felt gasket,and it does not sound brash at all,mines very sweet with a fair amount of sustain for a Duolian
petej

[bluesdude]

Hey there,some steel bodies benefit from a gasket and pool table felt is the wrong thing to put! it will absolutely kill the sound of your guitar! years ago I had an original gasket analyzed(I work in Textiles)and the right felt is the oldest kind of felt made with a Melton weave 100% wool! pool table felt is synthetic ! 1mm thick,I source them here colour #46 make sure to order the 30/40 cm,, maplesplendor.ca/felt/





Kenny, link

[Michael Messer]

Kenny is absolutely right, it must be 100% real wool felt. The synthetic stuff doesn't compress in the same way.

Thanks for the link, Kenny. That's a useful one.

Shine On
Michael

[maui_chimes]

Thanks for the advice. This one needs it. The original paper gasket crumbled and it doesn't sound right.

I am having trouble finding the right thickness felt in that dark green color here in the US.

The stuff I did find seems a little too thick. When I made the gasket, it stretched quite a bit as I cut it. Any tips for getting the proper fit?

[rbe]

Why not make a new paper gasket?

[Michael Messer]

Maui_Chimes,

I am not sure that I am following this. You want a felt gasket like the original stuff they used, but you don't have any to compare it with and the instrument in question doesn't have a felt gasket.

Cutting felt to fit National guitars is not something I do very often. The last time I did it was in 2002 and I don't remember it being too difficult. It reminded me of being 5 years old and making felt collages.

Use the cone as the template; lay the felt on a table and the cone on the felt... and draw around the cone. Then with sharp scissors (must be scissors, not a knife) cut out the circle. Then roughly draw a ring 7 or 8 mm from the outside of the circle. Either cut the circle in half to cut out the gasket, or if you are good with a pair of scissors, leave it as a complete ring. Job done.

What guitar are you fitting this gasket into and why?

Shine On
Michael

[bluesdude]

Like what Michael says, only keep in mind if your National has a low break angle and the cone wanders to one side/or the treble strings are shrill it is sometimes good to go up the side wall! and you can expedite the break in period by tuning up to open A spanish this seats the cone down to the metal faster! use a glue stick to lightly glue it in.


Kenny,

[rickS]

Another alternative to felt can be blotting paper - I've had good results using thin ( .004" ) blotting paper ( 30p a sheet at the stationers! ) ; if you use it neat, it softens the tone like felt, but without changing the action as much - I was using it to cure cone-buzz in a tricone, & damped it with white spirit while installing, which eliminates the tone-softening, at the cost of it whiffing for a few days! - result; buzz cured, action unchanged, sounds great ( better than without gaskets, to my ear, presumably due to a better seal of the cone rims ).. anyway, might be worth considering?

[maui_chimes]

I ended up finding some on ebay. I think the dark green color is perfect. 100% wool. 1mm thickness.

www.ebay.com/itm/141093282737

I think that will work for what I need. I'm just going to cut it a little smaller so that when it stretches, it still fits. I'm working on a ukulele by the way.

[bluesdude]

This is for a Uke!! I would do like both Rick s and Rik B suggested and go the paper route! in my opinion felt would be overkill,,



Kenny,

[maui_chimes]

I might try paper too after I give the felt a shot. It had paper before and it just wasn't working. The beauty of figuring out how to do this myself is that it gives me control. I've got a few of these old National ukes and some of them play and sound great, and others don't.

Today I just opened up one of them and found that the cone was glued in. I very carefully removed it with warm water and a feeler gauge bent into a hook shape.

[maui_chimes]

I've just completed the work on my old National ukulele and the result is well worth the time investment. Before, the sound was unbalanced, harsh, and lacking in power. After fitting the gasket and some other minor restoration, the tone is clear and sweet, significantly louder. The harshness is gone and it has the refined sound you want to hear. I recommend this to anyone who has a vintage National ukulele.

Here's what I did...

Cleanup
The paper gasket came out easily, but left behind some glue residue. Thankfully it was just hide glue from the factory to hold in the gasket. I soaked a paper towel in warm water and left it on the ledge of the soundwell for about an hour. The glue softened and wiped away easily with a soft cloth, leaving a clean & fresh surface. This was a great chance to vacuum all the dust out of the inside.

Gasket
This took 3 tries to get it just right. I traced the outline of the cone onto the felt and then cut out the circle about 3mm inside the line because the felt stretches as you cut it. Then I cut out the inside of the felt disc to make the donut the same width as the ledge of the soundwell. I could never cut a ring that would fit exactly in one piece so I had to snip it at one point and remove some excess after gluing it in. To glue in the gasket, I used a VERY small amount of water-thin hot hide glue. I was very careful to lay down the felt flat and position it correctly, working my way around the circle. There was a little bit of overlap where the felt joined so I clipped off the excess leaving a clean, level join. Left it to dry overnight before putting the cone back in.

I have seen some people recommend running the felt up the sides of the soundwell, and I tried this the first time. I was not able to get the cone to fit and seat properly.

Cone
The cone needed some attention. I carefully formed it back to the proper shape, making sure the edge is level. The edge of the cone has a flange which I used to adjust the fit and position of the cone within the soundwell. I was able to adjust the intonation slightly by squeezing in the flange on the headstock edge of the cone and expanding the flange on the tailpiece edge. It also worked for the left to right alignment and allowed me to get the cone snug within the soundwell.

Saddle
National ukuleles have a nut width narrower than Martin, and the string spacing at the bridge is usually too narrow for the fingerboard. The outer strings were not close enough to the fingerboard edges and this gave a cramped feel. So a new saddle with wider string spacing was in order. It was easy to use a little steam to separate the saddle from the biscuit. I shaped a new saddle from a maple blank, dyed it black with Fiebing's leather dye, and glued it to the biscuit with hot hide glue. I set the string spacing and action with the coverplate off and then put it all back together.

It actually took a lot of time fiddling around trying to get it just right, but the sound is worth the effort.