Voicing old Yamaha hammers

[Cy Shuster]

Thanks, John!  I would never have thought of loose pins as the cause... 
This is a music room piano in the college, so it has lots of wear on it. 
And thanks for the other suggestions...

--Cy--

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Musselwhite" <john@musselwhite.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: Voicing old Yamaha hammers


> At 09:36 PM 3/23/05 -0500, Cy wrote:
>
>>Had a new customer today with a 1974 Yamaha C3 that does a perfect banjo 
>>imitation.  String cuts in the hammers aren't too bad.  I don't have much 
>>experience in voicing, but it seems that this is a good place to start; in 
>>the worst case, I hang new hammers and everyone's happy.
>>
>>I'll begin with reshaping the hammers and leveling the strings, and see 
>>how far that takes me.  Would steam be a next step, or go right for the 
>>needles?  Any specific suggestions for these hammers?
>
> Do reshape the hammers, level the strings and mate them, but check the 
> hammer flanges afterwards before you start heavy needling. On an 
> ugly-sounding older C3 I worked on last week a 20.5 pin went through the 
> flange fairly easily with my fingers but I couldn't push it through the 
> bushing at all without putting a hole in my thumb. A few hours spent with 
> Don Maninno's reamers and new pins and a similar "banjo effect" almost 
> disappeared, particularly in the "killer octave" where it was most 
> noticeable.
>
> At THAT point you can try needling as has been suggested, but all the 
> needling in the world won't cure the sounds caused by loose flange 
> bushings, or in other cases, a tight bushing and a pin that's loose in the 
> wood.
>
>                 John Musselwhite, RPT
>
>
>
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