Voicing Down a Yamaha U1

[cswearingen@daigger.com]

Hello Everyone,

I've been off the list for a bit but now I'm back on and enjoying the
expertise of people much more experienced then myself!

I have a question regarding my own Yamaha U1.  When I purchased it about 5
years ago, I loved the bright sound it gave.  Now, 5 years of piano banging
has made it even brighter.  In that time, I have come to appreciate the
beauty of a more muted, softer tone.

I have needled the hammers but the result was not drastic - still a pretty
bright tone.  As the hammers are extremely hard, I've had a lot of
difficulty trying to needle radially so I experimented with some side
needling in the style of Ari Issac (If your not familiar with this
technique, you might want to go to his website and check it out - he gives
detailed instructions).  Again, this definitely helped but was more subtle
than I had hoped.  I would really like to take the brightness down quite a
bit and it seems to me that needling is not going to do it (I really would
rather avoid replacing the hammers as I'm not skilled enough to tackle a
job like that).

I have heard from some that an alcohol/water solution applied to the
shoulders of the hammer will loosen the fibers of the hammer and bring the
tone down.  Has anyone had any success with this technique?  Are there
other ways of really taking the brightness out of the hammer that is more
permanent than needling?

Any ideas, suggestions, and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Corte Swearingen
Associate PTG Member