quick voicing poll

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Jeff,
           Wet needling is the way to go. This vintage suffered from over
doped treble hammers. A mixture of keytop and acetone. Completely saturate
the hammers with acetone, leave for 20min for the acetone to get the
plastic "jelly like".  Saturate again, deep needle whilst wet, at 11
o'clock, needle about 1mm at or near the strike point.
  In some extreme cases I have used as much as a 1/3rd of a pint of acetone
on one piano, and have observed the white gloop staining the bottom of the
molding.( flush it out.) Use a hair drier to speed up the drying process.
This stuff takes weeks to fully harden so do not be afraid to over do it in
a practice room.
  I have experience with dozens of these pianos with this problem, I've
tried every thing. This will not distort the shape of the hammer like
alcohol and water, the process is not  exactly speedy either. But I can
develop superior tone quality by flushing it inward, as it seems to give
the working end of the hammer a very firm base, yet maintain some give near
the strike point.
Now for my flame suit or straight jacket.
Regards roger



At 03:53 PM 04/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Without a heck of a lot of discussion, I'm interested in sort of a poll on
>the question of voicing some obnoxiously bright, offensively loud, hard as
>a rock, 4-year-old Baldwin "L" hammers in practice rooms for piano majors.
>(Needling was good for about 2 weeks, but I was sore after I got through
>with one)
>
>Acetone?  or Alcohol/Water?
>
>If you've had unwanted results/side effects with one or the other, I'd like
>to know that also.  Responding privately is fine.
>Thanks,
>
>Jeff Tanner, Piano Technician
>School of Music
>University of South Carolina
>Columbia, SC 29208
>(803)-777-4392 (phone)
>(803)-777-6508 (fax)
> 
Roger Jolly
Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505