Vise Grips voicing is not a vice

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenneetah" <yardbird@vermontel.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 8:19 PM
Subject: RE: Vise Grips voicing is not a vice


> At 4:28 PM -0700 7/26/04, David Love wrote:
 > . . . .
> The thing which has always bugged me about pliers is the way they
> distort the shoulders.
> . . . . .  to the point
> where the surface of the shoulders themselves actually "cup").

    That's true.  They do.  A bit.  But I've seen hammers never touched
since leaving the factory that are cupped even worse than from pliers just
from their natural expansion at the edges after being sliced into individual
hammers.  So you touch them up a bit by filing.  Again, I said several times
that the pliers treatment is for extremely hard hammers, not fine concert
voicing.  Extremely hard hammers are usually found on cheaper instruments.
Usually.  Not always.

>This
> outward bulge also results in felt being pulled away from the crown,
> putting that under additional tension.

    I have found that needling, even shallow "sugar-coating",  on the crowns
of Yamaha hammers also makes the felt pull apart.  As does filing.  I think
they just have really high tension compared to other hammers.
    --David Nereson, RPT