JIV - jumping over vocalists

[R E Barber]

You ran out of room on the front side of the roster, so I signed the 
back at the very top.  What a venue!
-Richard Barber


> Bassooner
>   I was there. Who are you? You didn't sign your  name.
>   Very Good description of the way Aris  hammers work. Other hammers 
> do not
> nearly fit this profile though  & one size fits all voicing techniques 
> as he
> described for his are not  necessarily transferrable one brand of 
> hammer to
> another without some  exploration of there latent potential initially. 
> Know what I
> mean?
>    IMO
>   Dale Erwin
>
> I had a  chance to speak with hammer & bass string craftsman Ari Issac
> at the  San Francisco Chapter meeting this month.  The most impressive
> things  he taught me was to listen to great piano recordings, even old
> recordings,  and figure out what kind of tone you like and what you're
> working  towards.  And dont be afraid to juice the shoulders.   He
> explained hammers are like tennis balls- they collapse a bit on impact,
> then spring back imparting a secondary force to the strings.  Felt  has
> to be springy while resisting wear.  Juicing the shoulders can  serve 
> to
> reflect more of the impact back to the string.  The force is  
> controlled
> by loosening fibers between the strike point and the core by  needling
> from the side.  By the reason of the shoulders acting to  reflect the
> spring force towards the srike point, the shoulders are not to  be
> weakened by needling.
> We heard him demonstrate this- the difference  was impressive.  There
> was a range of opinions as to whether or not  the change was good, a
> matter of taste.  The subject piano had a new  set of his hammers, and
> had a very clear and complex overtone klang, when  compared with the
> steinway sets beside it, which was mostly fundamental in  comparison.
>
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