[pianotech] Tone building in the modern piano

[Ron Nossaman]

paul bruesch wrote:
> Ron,
> 
> I've tried steaming hammers on a 2003 Malaysian Kohler & Campbell. The 
> guidelines I read a while ago were to just steam them in my Rival 
> hot-pot (doubles as a glue pot) for just a very brief time. I took that 
> to mean about 1-2 seconds. It didn't help. What's your (or anyone else?) 
> sense for timing on this? If 1-2 seconds isn't enough, go for another 
> 1-2 seconds? Or for another 3-5 seconds? Or just replace hammers? (Not 
> kidding on that.)

I don't really know. I get very little call for this kind of 
thing, since almost everyone likes them really bright. The few 
that I've done, I experimented until I got something less 
painful and, hopefully, short of going too far. Needling, 
steaming, more of both, more of either, side needling, give up 
while you're behind, or whatever it comes to. Any time I've 
tried to come up with some sort of procedural formula for this 
kind of thing, the next one blows it out of the water, so I 
try a little of something and let the sound give me some clue, 
hopefully, as to what to try next. The problem with replacing 
the hammers is determining if that will improve anything. 
Those hammers might be hard because the board doesn't have 
anything to give. In the case of your K&C, if replacing the 
hammers is a real option, you can push the current hammers 
farther than you normally would to see if they'll improve. If 
they improve, it may or may not be enough, or last long 
enough, which will also tell you something.

It's just one (or 50,000) of those things.
Ron N