Brambach pianos, more on hammer softeners

[Billbrpt@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/29/00 1:08:53 PM Central Daylight Time, 
BSimon999@AOL.COM writes:

<< A customer who called me is looking to buy a Brambach console made in 1987 
 but is a bit suspicious of the age of the piano. I have it through Pierce 
 Atlas that Kohler and Campbell owned the Brambach name but they went out of 
 business in 1983? 
 
 Were Bramback pianos produced in 1987?
 
 Is the Brambach name currently in out of production?
 
 Thanks for any help.
 
 Bill Simon
 Phoenix >>

I saw and worked with a few pianos made in Korea with the Brambach name 
around 10 years ago.  I don't know which Korean manufacturer made them or if 
any are being made now with that name.  I haven't seen any more for many 
years.  They were imported through Baldwin.  These were studio model pianos 
and were well prepared from the factory as Asian imports go.  I never saw any 
console model pianos but sometimes, a studio model piano is called a console. 
 

Although these pianos had what I considered to be good, normal tone, this is 
the kind of piano that often has had far too much hardener put in the hammers 
at the factory.  As a professional piano technician, I would not tell the 
dealer nor the customer that the piano is "no good" because of it, call it a 
"PSO" or suggest that all of the hammers be replaced.

If you tried to use voicing needles on such a piano, you wouldn't get very 
far, you'd just end up breaking a lot of needles and make no improvement.  I 
heard about the use of fabric softener in such instances many years ago so it 
is nothing new.  The idea that there might be an "antidote" for too much 
hardener is a reasonable one and might even be useful in an emergency for a 
valuable instrument that had been mis- (or overly) treated by another well 
meaning technician.  There is a time and place for all good and effective 
techniques.

While I also have some concern about foreign residue that fabric softener 
might leave in the hammer felt, I'm afraid that the product brand name, 
"Snuggle" is what was upsetting more than anything else.  "Surfactant 
solution" might not have been quite so.

There have been many ideas discussed on this subject.  Personally, I always 
look for the easiest, most effective way to make a difference in a difficult 
situation.  I ended up with a technique that works for me in such instances 
which is cheap, leaves no residue and is always effective.  I simply use 70% 
Isopropyl alcohol straight out of the bottle, right on the striking surface.  
I sometimes combine this with a little needling once the alcohol has broken 
up the hardness enough that the needles can be inserted.

To do a good and effective job does not necessarily mean that lots of time 
must be spent.  This goes for tuning, regulation, voicing or really, anything 
else.  Yes, the job should be done properly but I must admit that of all of 
the voicing jobs that I have done, the ones that took the least amount of 
time were often the ones where the customer was very, very pleased, to the 
point of offering a tip or making some kind of special complimentary gesture.

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin