Voicing an old piano

[Richard Brekne]

Old mushy hammers can be firmed up well with cellulose lacquer,
shellack, or other hammer hardening substanses. I like fairly thin
shellack myself... dries relatively quickly, and is easy to loosen up
with needles if you go to far. 

RicB

cswearingen@daigger.com wrote:
> 
> Hello List,
> 
> I have a client that has an old Raymond upright.  It's about 75 years old
> but it still plays reasonably well.  I wanted to get some advice on voicing
> the hammers in this piano.  I've already filed all the grooves out of the
> hammers, shaped them and shined them up all purdy like with hi-grit
> sandpaper.  This helped the tone quite a bit but there is still a long way
> to go.  This is where I need your advice.  The bass sounds quite tubby and
> as you move up into the tenor and high treble, the sound just gets brighter
> and harsher.  The owner actually likes the brash sound in the treble so I
> wanted to bring up the bass a bit so it doesn't sound so muddy and matches
> up somewhat better to the tenor area.
> 
> So, what should I do here?  I'm thinking because the strings are 75 years
> old, a large part of the problem is there.  Restringing is not an option
> here but do you think I can juice up the hammers enough to make a
> difference?  I have a solution of acetone/keytop and was just thinking of
> using a few drops on the crown of the bass hammers.  I know that this
> probably wouldn't be the way to treat new hammers but what about old worn
> out hammers.  I'm thinking this may be all I need to bring 'em up a bit.
> 
> Any comments would be welcome.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Corte Swearingen
> Chicago
> 
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-- 
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
UiB, Bergen, Norway
mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html