I'd be leaping on those puppies with my modified Vice-grips (a la Wally Brooks) followed by a lightly damp rag and the back side of my voicing iron, i.e., steam. The needle-in-a-Dremmel works well. I'd try all those things before spending a day trying to, as one put it, "split hickory knots using a corn dodger as a wedge and a pumpkin for a mallet." A quote for Texans: "The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon." Frederick Law Olmsted, 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856) Alan Barnard Salem, MO Joshua 24:15 Original message From: "Geoff Sykes" To: "Pianotech at Ptg. Org" Received: 09/14/2006 8:09:38 PM Subject: Alcohol and hard hammers Tomorrow I have to go up against a new, out of the box, upright piano with ROCK hard hammers. I have been asked to voice the hammers down significantly in order to reduce the unpleasant brittle harsh cold sound. Last time I had to do this I just aggressively needled away for a long time. Very aggressively with lots of broken needles. Even after I was "finished" I was still unable to get a needle in more than about 1mm. Not too long ago, on the list, I read that treating hard hammers with a little alcohol would help un-compact the felt. However, these are new hammers and are probably hard because of a hardening treatment. Today's question is: Would a small alcohol treatment help? If not, what would you suggest? -- Geoff Sykes -- Assoc. Los Angeles -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060914/4bd8931a/attachment.html
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC