End of the line

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings, 
   I have been seeing so many uses for the CA glue I never would have thought
of.   It must be rubbing off, because now I am starting to voice with it. 
    The rebuild piano was a very nice 1919 Model O, and the first set of
factory hammers I have used in a long time,( I have a Renner bias going these
days).   It was somewhat odd to be building tone from the dark side  with
hardener rather than working from harshness to fullness  with the needle, but
with the latest tips from Candace Wilken, (the dealer's choice here in
Nashville), and a little bag of white granules, the shop was soon full of
fumes and  overtones.   
    The temptation is certainly there to "bring'em on up", and juice till
there is that clarity and edge available on the moderate touch, but I
resisted, having watched a number of new Steinways go from glorious tone to
being harsh and hard in 6 months.  I always before, and still do, think the
finest sound comes after the first 100 hours on hammers that were a little too
soft for comfort in the beginning. 
    Everything came up as hoped for except the last two notes. Dead as Tuesday
night, but the strings would sing under pluck!  The old hammer, worn near the
core, would make them peal, but the new hammers, with four or five treatments
over the week, went nowhere.  So, as I was contemplating replacing them, it
occured to me to go all the way, and I gave their crowns four drops each of
Gold Bond CA, ( Frank Weston swears by this stuff, I am starting to agree). 
    Wham, bam!  the next day the piano with the Golden crowns had two top
notes that were as clear and defined as I have ever heard!! 
  This piano, btw, had a beautiful soundboard in it, one small crack, but
plenty of crown and solid, round tone all the way through.  It was voiced
fairly mellow when it went out, and the break was quite smooth.   The
Sanderson strings helped with  a very nice bass, and the next one I do will
get the newer scaling with the treble bichords, 

I wouldn't go so far to put the CA glue on hammers farther down in the
scale,(not at $332 a set, unbored!),  but for these two notes, it became
obvious that nothing short of Hard would do.  
Regards, 
Ed Foote