Brambach pianos, more on hammer softeners

[Wilsons]

Bill:

    How does the isopropyl work with softening the plastic in acetone so commonly
used as hardener today?

Wally Wilson, RPT
 Ravenswood, West Virginia
 Columbus, OH chapter

Billbrpt@AOL.COM wrote:

> 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