[CAUT] Alcohol/water on Yamaha hammers--Cy

[Susan Kline]

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At 04:14 AM 1/7/2006 -0500, Cy wrote:
>I was taught that the hammers should be allowed to dry before playing (to 
>avoid packing the felt back down).  Is this how you do it, Susan?

Not exactly, Cy. I try not to play the bass hammers till most of the 
moisture has wicked away, because I don't want to get water clinging in the 
grooves of the wrap, rusting the core wire. But in the treble, I sometimes 
find that if a hammer is a tough customer, and the alcohol and filing just 
haven't softened it down, sometimes a few good hard blows while still wet 
has more effect. I think that while wet the felt is pretty springy, and is 
more likely to do its *sproing!* thing rather than turning to a brick. It 
can be subtle, but sometimes I can hear the difference after a hard (wet) 
blow, and it is toward the mellow side.

If I'm meeting a piano like a 20-year-old Korean grand which hasn't had 
anything but tuning and has seen heavy use, so that the hammers are really 
flattened on the ends and the grooves are very long, I do the alcohol 
first, and then the filing. This is because in a very neglected piano the 
felt at the strike point gradually flakes away, but the ends of the 
grooves, having had contact with the wire for a shorter time than the 
middle, has packed down instead of breaking and flaking off. (First it 
packs in, then later the packed fibers break and fly away.) Therefore, when 
the water gets to the grooves, the hammer bulges, and leaves a pair of 
little ridges. A few swipes of a hammer file smooths these over. I don't 
file to the bottom of grooves, especially before using the alcohol, because 
it takes off too much felt, and also because the packed felt in the 
grooves, even treated with alcohol, will still have a brighter tone than 
the felt surrounding, and the tonal contrast is better when the shift is used.

I think that most of the bad rap which alcohol is getting has come from 
people being way too aggressive with it, without understanding what it can 
do. Once the shoulders are soaked, the hammers are pretty well shot, is my 
impression. At least, I've never had the opportunity to work on a set which 
have been submerged or over-steamed, to see if I could resuscitate them. 
Some skills it's just as well not to develop unless the necessity is 
dropped into one's lap ... which might happen to Jeff if matters proceed as 
he describes. There's one Steinway in a studio here so over-softened (not 
by me) that it might be a candidate, but so far no one has asked me to try 
to bring it back, and I don't plan to beg trouble unless I have to.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Cy. We seem to have had some of the 
same results. Given that budgets are usually inadequate and pianos are in 
need, I think there's a place for these minimal interventions, so long as 
everyone understands that the hammers are more or less toast, and this is a 
stopgap. If it works, sometimes for quite awhile, why not? One isn't trying 
it on their premium concert piano. One does it to the clapped out old grand 
which they have neglected for years, which nobody wants to play any more.

Susan 
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