As it happened, I saw this piano today. I really don't recommend chemical hardening of Abel Natural hammers. The Naturals in their original state had a much wider range of timbre, and could be played very loud without clanging or breaking up the sound. Ed Sutton ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Sutton" <ed440 at mindspring.com> To: <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 10:29 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Shellac Voicing > FWIW, only once have I added shellac to a set of Abel Natural hammers, and > it was on the insistence of the customer. > > The piano was a 1920's S & S M, original soundboard, showing some weakness > in the first capo section. My preference was to leave the hammers alone, > but the owner wanted more bang in octaves 5 and 6, so finally I agreed to > harden that area. I put in thin shellac, and then used pure alcohol to > flush it away from the surface. > > Again, I would have prefered leaving it alone, but after 6 months and many > voicing adjustments the customer was still very unhappy, so I agreed to > harden the treble hammers. > > Ed S. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Dan Rembold" <d_rembold at yahoo.com> > To: <caut at ptg.org> > Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 9:51 PM > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Shellac Voicing > > > Hi Andrew, > > Abel Naturals are an excellent choice for a replacement hammer, but no my > part I have not yet had to add power to a new set; quite the contrary. > > I'm just wondering, are there just a few notes that sound like they need > to be brought up, or the entire piano? What brand of piano is it, and how > old? On the last Hamburg Steinway O that I used the Abels on, I found that > once I needled down the sections that had extra noise, the entire piano > had more power. My guess is that more power was going into tone > production, less into unwanted noise. No hardening was needed in that > case. > > Also, on your premise that lacquer continues to harden over the life of > the hammer, I would tend to disagree. The apparent continuing hardness > must be coming from something else, since lacquer doesn't harden over > time. I've been spraying nitrocellulose off and on for 30 years, and I > can still make an impress into lacquer finishes I did years ago, with just > a thumbnail. I may be off by transferring that idea to hammers, but > that's my observation. > > No matter what you choose to use--shellac, lacquer or acetone-based--where > you place the solution into the hammer will have the most effect on tone. > If you do use shellac, the off-the-shelf prepackaged kind is never > consistent--you can get flakes from woodworker.com pretty reasonable. The > dedicated shellac thinner is probably best too, since paint-store > varieties of denatured alcohol are all various blends of kerosene, naptha, > gasoline, and who knows what else. > > Let us know how it works out. > Dan Rembold > Auburn University > >
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