Ed, I'm assuming that you are talking about an older upright with a hard sound. Soft bristle brushing and or vacuum cleaning of hammers as needed. I start (when I can a day in advance) by putting a drop of rubbing alcohol on each of the string grooves on the hammers to un-compact the felt a little. Some do a moist (not wet) rag and a quick pass with an iron. (Careful here, too much on some old uprights and you will have something resembling cotton balls...don't ask.) This does get the whole hammer whereas the dropper method targets the affected area. Then file away to re-shape the hammers (if flattened) to a strike point as opposed to a strike zone. You will end up getting rid of any deep string grooves but that isn't the point of re-shaping (don't flatten a hammer to de-groove). Get that nifty hammer shaping tool from Mother Goose and then fit the hammers to the strings. Ie. when the hammer is lightly pressed against the strings, plucking will not reveal an open string. (This fitting will reduce noise and tuning problems (phase beating) in uprights to an extent that is rewarding, surprising really.) Then needle voice. Schaff sells a tool with a swivel head that allows voicing in the piano. Andrew At 04:39 PM 8/3/2006, you wrote: >Hi List, > >Would anyone be willing to share their procedure for voicing hammers >in and upright action? > >I'ver never done it before. Voicing on a grand seems somewhat more >practical, since it is easy enough to slide the action in and out. >But it seems like a hassle to take the action out in between >listening in order to needle the hammers bottomsides. > >Thanks, >Ed >
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