[CAUT] Press vs Stab voicing

[Fred Sturm]

On Jun 13, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Ed Sutton wrote:

> Here is another big variable we seem to overlook in our  
> generalizations.
>
> I always position the needles as you describe, trying to open up  
> "layers." The only time I go "straight in" is for sugar coating on  
> the top of the hammer. Sugar coating is the one time that I "stab."  
> I'm using a tool with very short needles, so there is also the  
> impact of the tool surface involved.


	It is great to get all these details of what different people do, and  
the philosophy behind them.
	I have a little different approach. I go in 90 degrees at the low mid  
shoulder, and as I move up the hammer, I angle bit by bit until when I  
am near the top, I am angling away from the molding, leaving the  
imaginary triangle at the tip of the crown untouched. (It only gets  
touched with shallow needles, assuming a standard, decent hammer of  
the Abel/Renner ilk, not the obscenely over dense hammers of some  
mostly Asian products of the past three decades).
	The first insertion is usually pretty hard to get in all the way. The  
next insertion is above by maybe 1.5 mm, and offset to the side by  
maybe 1 mm. And subsequent ones zigzag up the surface of the hammer.  
Each subsequent insertion is somewhat easier than the first, and is  
pushing fibers into the opening made by the previous insertion (that  
is what makes it easier). If an insertion does not feel somewhat  
easier than the first, I make the gaps between insertions smaller. It  
is very much a judgment of touch, based on experience.
	When I am up to the top (usually 3 mm or so from the middle of the  
crown for pre-voicing), I have a very consistent area of shoulder  
felt, that I can build on pretty confidently in the later stages. The  
earlier stage is probably somewhat slower than what a lot of people do  
(though I'm not all that slow - I usually complete pre-voicing a set  
in a couple hours or so - if the hammers aren't particularly hard),  
but the overall time to "finished" product is reduced because the  
refinement phase is much easier.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu