S&S Hammers

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Newton,
                 Excellent advice, just about enough imformation for a 2
day seminar.
Not one of these methods, is a panacea for all hammers, Technicians that do
a lot of voicing, use all or most of the listed proceedures.

You missed one, (smile) acetone wash, for excessively doped hammers.

Have a nice day.
Roger



At 09:41 AM 20/01/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Jim Bryan's post was an excellent one.
>
>I would add the following:
>
>Find a piano that has the tone that you like to hear and _listen_ to
>it and get an idea of that tone in your mind.
>
>Realize that piano hammers are, or should be, a complex of energy,
>dynamics, compression, stretch, resilience and elasticity.
>
>Dynamic range is a product of the last two items.  Hammers are made
>under tons of pressure per square inch so a dynamic is built into the
>hammer.  To make this available to the pianist the hammer must be
>allow to be elastic so it compresses against the string then it must
>be resilient so it kicks itself off the string causing the string to
>move even further.
>
>Playing at the softest possible dynamic should produce a soft round
>full tone and the higher the dynamic the more intense the higher
>partials become.  The steel covered by a soft glove.
>
>The one thing I had trouble learning was that if it takes a hundred
>needle insertions to make the sound I want to hear it takes a
>hundred.  If you have to remove the action a thousand time you have to
>remove the action a thousand time.  There is absolutely no substitute
>for doing it the way it has to be done.
>
>There are many different approaches to voicing:
>
>needling the strike point (normally considered a no-no)
>using steam to decompress the felt (effective)
>using hat water and alcohol or Woolite (often effective)
>needling radically (traditional)
>needling laterally (nice dynamic release)
>single needle
>two needles
>3, 4, 8 needles (which ever works)
>glovers needles (not recommended, tears and cuts felt)
>pliers to massage (squeeze) felt (often effective but difficult and
>distorts hammer)
>Beating hammer in vise with hammer (does not soften hammers)
>Hardening hammers with chemicals (substitute for poor soundboard)
>Hardening hammers with filing or pounding (section or individually)
>
>None of the above include spacing, leveling or other string
>activities.
>
>So working with a good voicer so you can HEAR the difference is a
>great idea.  I did it and paid for the instruction and benefited from
>the instruction to my financial advantage.
>
>One other item, anytime you have access to hammers before, after or
>during tuning voice a little.  Fit hammers to strings by filing,
>lifting strings, voice a hard hammer, file a soft hammer, etc.  DO
>_something_ to make an improvement.  You _will_ learn, one hammer at a
>time.
>
>		Newton
> 
Roger Jolly
Saskatoon, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505