Thank you Ron, for your well written post. I want to establish some kind of common terminology that transcends the one on one and expands into the group conscience. Ask a terminology question and uncover another terminology question. Dale's post looks interesting. Thank you for the caution. Eric was dealing with a soft hammer that was brought up with lacquer. He then spent the class removing the objectionable sizzle and uneven volume. He STRESSED that one needle in a "tension or compression" hammer has up to 10 times the effect as on a lacquered hammer. I'm assuming Yamaha has the type of hammers that Antares says can be made "powerless" by over kill or lessening the natural tension with incorrect needling. Keith R ----- Original Message ----- > Ok, I got it now. I'm not entirely sure there is any universally approved > terminology in voicing. I always have to work out a "translation table" > with each customer each time it comes up. They all know exactly what > they're hearing, and they all use entirely different terminology to > describe it. That low tenor woof is likely string scaling. Low tensions (% > of breaking tension) in the wire trichords will give that hollow sound, > while the wrapped strings just below are at a higher %break, and sound much > better. I don't know of any hammer voicing tricks to make this go away. > I've managed some apparent improvements with the usual brushing, steaming, > or needling, but it is never really satisfactory to me. Super hard hammers > don't help this much either. I usually start with a light brushing with a > small brass bristle brush to try to hear past the clang and see what I have > to work with. Sometimes just the brushing helps enough to get me off the > hook. Sometimes not. Some techs are very good at temporarily disguising > scale and soundboard design problems with voicing, but I never was. > > Low soundboard impedance problems produce a similar kind of sound, so it is > often hard to tell what you're hearing. Those hollow sounding couple of > notes on either side of a plate strut where the bridge is deeply notched > are a low impedance effect. The bridge is too flexible there. Killer octave > (5-6---) voicing problems are likely soundboard impedance problems too, but > could be too hard hammers, string level, or front duplex effects. Low tenor > voicing problems across the break can be low impedance, scaling, or both - > just to add to the confusion. > > I'd proceed cautiously. > > Ron N >
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