PLIER VOICING - SURVEY +

[pianoman]

I first heard about plier voicing from on of our PTG'ers here in St. Louis
named Julius Konopka.  It does work well very quickly but I would not want
to use it one fine pianos.
James Grebe
R.P.T. from St. Louis
pianoman@inlink.com
"Only my best is good enough"

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> From: BSimon1234@aol.com
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: PLIER  VOICING  - SURVEY
> Date: Thursday, November 27, 1997 5:01 PM
> 
> I have been reading all the posts about wetting hammers, steaming
hammers,
>  stabbbing them with needles, washing plastics and lacquers in and out of
> them, ironing them, etc. I am beginning to feel pity for the poor little
> things.
> 
> Let's have it!   Who out there has had good or bad experiences with plier
> voicing!  Are there any strong prejudices about the way one massages wool
> fibers in hard hammers?
> 
> IMHO - Two minutes of plier voicing,  which uses gas burner pliers or
small
> Vice Grip pliers to squeeze the shoulder areas of hammers that is
normally
> needled in voicing, can make a huge improvement in tone, especially to
Jesse
> French spinets, Winter spinets,  and 1910 big old uprights with rock hard
> hammers. I use the technique on perhaps 4 or 5 pianos a year and never
charge
> for it because an entire set of hammers can be treated in less than three
> minutes.  I am not suggesting that one go regulate a Steinway concert
grand
> this way, -- but WHY NOT? - It is/was a technique very heavily used
decades
> ago but has become unfashionable now.  I would love to hear technical
reasons
> for its demise!
> 
> I KNOW that one is supposed to sell a new set of imported hammers and a
> $200.00 voicing job on these PSO's, but that is unrealistic.  By the way,
>  the plier voicing holds for about 6 months to a year.
> 
> (Putting on my flame retarding suit)
> Bill Simon
> Phoenix