[CAUT] Quick Hamilton voicing/new Fazioli

[mario at pianosinsideout.com]

Minor point: I think Sujatri and Gabor are from Hungary.

Mario Igrec
www.pianosinsideout.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Fortenberry, Kevin [mailto:kevin.fortenberry at ttu.edu] 
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 10:52 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Quick Hamilton voicing/new Fazioli

I still get stuff on the old list also.

I had some FANTASTIC results yesterday voicing a Baldwin Hamilton in one of
our small classrooms. Needed to do an emergency "bring the hammers down out
of the rafters" voicing so that one of our Opera profs could do a quick jury
in this room at the last minute. I decided to chuck up a #2 crewel needle in
my battery powered dremel tool--about and inch/inch and
1/4 in length. (Big honking needle--I proceeded with MUCH, MUCH caution.) I
tried angel shot from several different angle, going straight down through
the shoulder and went all the way through to the other shoulder--voicing on
the side, etc. etc. (these may be the only hammers known to man that need
this type of POWER NEEDLING!!)  After a while I developed a FAIRLY good
routine & was able to bring the mid range down to about where the bass was
with PRETTY GREAT sound and evenness--and then just brought the worst of the
treble down to get a fairly good progression. I think I am on to something
here. We have like a KA-BILLION of these Hamiltons here at Texas Tech. And
like 90 % of them MUST BE BROUGHT down and w/o spending a ton of time. I
will do further research--of course all voicing is somewhat experimental!

I have also been wanting to share about our INCREDIBLE new Fazioli 278 (the
9'2" one. Does not have the fourth pedal.) Our piano faculty is particularly
excited about this piano--as are so many here in the School of Music. I LOVE
tuning and voicing this piano. Of couse the voicing on this piano is
DIAMETRICALLY OPOSED to the Hamilton type above. I have found that I really
do LIKE filing the hammers with the narrow strips of 600 grip wet dry, 1000,
grit and even 1500 grit--still put masking tape on the back. For regular
needling these hammer are a dream. They voice much like the regular Renners,
except VERY RESPONSIVE! There are several tricks the guy from the piano
dealer in New York showed me (actually Sujatri is from Italy, and is part
owner of the Clavierhouse dealer.), but Fred had done a wonderful job of
desribing the Fazioli methods. I am looking forward to learning much more
about this--and the lines drawn on the hammers. Fantastic piano!

Kevin Fortenberry