Hiya folks, Just wanted to say I tried plier voicing last week for the first time, with great success. I was in London visiting my friend, and tuned his fiancee's piano (I'm to be their best man on the 17th, but that's another story...). It's a small 1930's Challen grand (you'll know the type, Barrie) and I had last tuned it some months ago, at which time I refaced and ironed the hammers. I had left the tone rather hard, to see if it would soften any by the time I returned. It hadn't, and I was pondering what to do since I hadn't brought my toning needle holder, when I spotted a pair of pliers on the floor where they'd just been used to adjust a radiator. Well, here goes, I thought, and gingerly squeezed a single hammer. Surprised at the difference this made, I quickly did the lot, and got the voicing exactly as I wanted, in an extremely short time, compared to all the jabbing and stabbing it would've taken with the needles. I can quite see, however that it would be very easy to ruin a set of hammers if one was ham-fisted. The recent comments about squeezing knuckle splines to get them to fit were interesting. (Versatile tool, pliers!) Folks, what do you find to be the most expedient way to remove the old knuckles from the shanks? Ralph - my Boyce surname is Irish. Clan-wise, I'm a MacGregor. Reminds me of a story of my mother's. At a convention in London in the 50's, my mother got into conversation with an American lady, who on finding out that my mother was from Scotland said "Oh! Scottish! And what tribe do you belong to?........" Best wishes to all. David. David@bouncer.force9.net
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