[CAUT] Shift voicers

[Fred Sturm]

On Oct 11, 2007, at 1:09 PM, Douglas Wood wrote:

> Here are a couple of pictures of "shift voicers" that I have. The  
> round one (5/8 birch dowel) has #5 needles--too big. They were  
> lying around the shop, and I didn't take the time to recognize them  
> as #5's. The handle is actually quite nice for me. The flat tool  
> has #6's. Very good for mP-mF voicing level. I'm going to make up  
> some #10 or #12 tools for deeper work--harder playing.
>
> Note that I've just set the needles carefully into a narrow epoxy- 
> filled saw kerf. I think I used the Exacto saw, or perhaps the  
> little Japanese one. Space the needles carefully and leave it until  
> hard.
>
> Doug

Hi Doug,
	Nice looking tools. Putting the needles in a saw kerf works okay -  
that's what I did the first couple times - but I found that it was  
troublesome to get them to be evenly spaced, even length, and to get  
the epoxy or CA into the groove and not running out or onto the  
needles, so I tried individually drilled holes and found the process  
more easily controllable. Obviously that's a personal choice of "what  
works best for me." With the holes drilled, I insert a needle in each  
hole, sharp end first, and cut off the bottom of the needle (sticking  
out of the hole) to length. Then I reverse them all, set them  
carefully to length (the holes are just over the size of the needle,  
so they stay put well), apply thin CA, spray with accelerant, pop  
them in the tool kit.
	I like a bit wider spacing than yours look like. I measured mine,  
and centers are from 1 to 1.5 mm. More precisely, I usually have five  
needles per tool, and the outer needles are 6 to 7.5 mm apart, with  
the others spaced evenly (half the distance for the middle one, then  
half of that distance, done by eye). These two spacings are the ones  
I like the best, and I have tried narrower (wider doesn't seem worth  
trying).
	It's not just for una corda. I use the #12 tool mostly for tre  
corde, in the groove touch up voicing. I can go through an entire  
piano, all grooves of all hammers in a consistent manner (tapering  
top to bottom of the piano) in about ten minutes, and "take the edge  
off," take it from the raucous sound of a piano that has been played  
too much to a pretty sophisticated "mellower" sound, but not losing  
bite at higher force. Very even, very controlled results.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



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