Modern Tone II, the Return of the Question

[Roger Jolly]

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Greetings All,
                          Steam voicing should be reserved for those pianos 
where there is no budget to do the job correctly, or there is little 
justification to spend a lot of money.   Light steaming of practice room 
pianos, is a way to keep your sanity in a 7 X 7ft room.  If you dry iron 
after the steam, you will rarely have a bumpy mess David.  It will also 
even the tone out quite a bit.

Very deep needling ( 15mm )  at the 9 o'clock area, right down to the 
molding, with a single needle, will tame many of those very hard 
hammers.   This will build some good elasticity into the shoulders.

Regards Roger



At 06:44 PM 3/6/2005, you wrote:
>I've tried it also and I'm not that happy with it.  I'm going to stick to 
>needles.   For me, steaming gave me unlevel strike surface which then had 
>to deal with,   If I had done any needling prior to steaming...god what a 
>bumpy mess...I've still got it in the bag of tricks but only for rock hammers.
>
>David Ilvedson
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>----------
>Original message
>From: Michael Gamble
>To: Jerry Cohen
>Received: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 17:07:52 -0000
>Subject: Re: Modern Tone II, the Return of the Question
>
>Hello Jerry, Alan and List
>Let us not forget Roger Jolly's wonderful steam approach. He sent me a 
>copy of his treatise on the subject and I've tried it. It works. 
>Needle-less voicing... worth a thought? Non?
>Michael G.(UK)
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:emailforjc@yahoo.com>Jerry Cohen
>To: <mailto:pianotech@ptg.org>'Pianotech'
>Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 3:28 PM
>Subject: RE: Modern Tone II, the Return of the Question
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: <mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org>pianotech-bounces@ptg.org 
>[mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan
>Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 1:08 AM
>To: 'Pianotech'
>Subject: RE: Modern Tone II, the Return of the Question
>
>
>
>
>
>P.S.  Part of my pursuit of this at this time is a desire to rescue an 
>area Methodist church from the shrill, busy, ultra-bright, piercing, 
>stident, trident (gummed up) sound of the little Samick SG-172 grand they 
>bought. I'm pretty sure it's going to start with some serious string 
>seating, bridge pin stabilization, and regulation--followed by a session 
>in the back room with those hammers ... under a bright light ... with a 
>rubber hose and brass knuckles, to soften them up. I don't THINK I could 
>make it worse, even with what I know, now.  And, no, there are no other 
>guild techs within two hours of here and no local yokels I'd want to 
>invite to help. I am alllllll aloooooooone here in the elephant ivory 
>graveyard.
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>Alan,
>
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>I think the Samick is an excellent piano to start learning with. I did 
>some voicing on one a few weeks ago. It was also shrill and painful to 
>tune. The hammers are actually decent quality, and with needling, you can 
>create nice elasticity in the shoulders, and create whatever you want as 
>you approach the top.
>
>
>
>Since you are just starting, my advice is to make some improvement in some 
>section. If you try to do everything, you will get frustrated and lose 
>perspective. For example, even though the whole piano sounds shrill, try 
>to find one octave that is a little worse (or a lot worse) than the rest. 
>Work only on that section, and try to make it blend perfectly with the 
>rest of the piano. By doing this you will be developing your skills at not 
>only tone building, but also creating an even line. After you have 
>finished that section, pat yourself on the back, and leave the piano for 
>maybe a week or two. Then you can start working on other sections.  If you 
>work on the whole piano at once, you can easily lose your reference.
>
>
>
>We met briefly during Don Mannino's voicing class in Sacramento. While he 
>spent more time on pre-voicing, he really did demonstrate most of the 
>principles of voicing. I suggest starting with the shoulders, trying to 
>feel the elasticity being created. Work on one note at a time. Make a few 
>stabs, front and rear, and listen to the result. The difference should be 
>heard in the mF and F levels. Listen very carefully. When you hear a 
>difference, move to the next note, even if you haven't finished the first 
>one. Remember, the needling tool works a lot better than the unneedling 
>tool! Eventually you can start working up to the crown, but stay away from 
>the strike point for now. Use this area to create a nice mp and p sound. 
>The final result should be nice tone which has variety from pp to F. At FF 
>it should start to crash. Then you have created the full dynamic range of 
>the piano.
>
>
>
>It was good to meet you last month, however briefly, and I hope this helps.
>
>
>
>Jerry Cohen
>
>NJ Chapter
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>--
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