Flexible collodion for voicing hammers

Horace Greeley hgreeley@leland.Stanford.EDU
Wed Dec 8 02:00 MST 1999


David,

At 05:36 PM 12/7/99 -0800, you wrote:
>At this time I'll pass, but it might be interesting to experiment
>with.  Isn't it used regularly in Europe?  I had a guy from
>Denmark that talked about it and like the flexibility of it in the
>hammer?  I guess he mean't it never fully hardened?

Frankly, I do prefer the sound, for some pianos.  For most S&S, I still 
greatly prefer lacquer and lacquer thinner, but that really does take a bit 
of time.  Collodion does, too - especially when one is first working with it.

I do not know how extensive the use of it is today in Europe.  I do know 
that, at one time (and, not all that long ago), it was the hardener of 
choice for most of the "real" pianos; i.e., the Three B's, Hamburg, etc.

Where it has been most useful for me has been with those pianos with which 
one is constantly "playing" - changes for artists, quick humidity changes, 
where one instrument has to do too much, that kind of thing.  Then, I have 
most often used it over a base of 4:1 lacquer thinner to automotive 
lacquer.  (I use the latter because of the higher volume of 
solids.)  Anyway, the collodion used in conjunction with that allows a 
wider degree of versatility than one might expect, without shortening the 
life of the hammer too much.

It does not, in my experience, ever fully harden, and that is part of it's 
attractiveness.

Sad - maybe I'll just have to pour this out somewhere EPA-safe....

Best to all!

Horace


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Horace Greeley, 			email:	hgreeley@stanford.edu	
CNA, MCP, RPT				
Systems Analyst/Engineer		voice:	650.725.9062
Controller's Office			fax:	650.725.8014
Stanford University
651 Serra St., RM 100, MC 6215
Stanford, CA 94305-6215

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