[CAUT] Voicing method/analogy

[Michael Jorgensen]

     It is well established that adding weight to a hammer changes the tone.
Flexibility or springiness of the material added is also a factor.
Analogy:
A student railroad engineer was instructed to bring a 100 car train to a
precision stop.  Immediately after doing so, there came a jolt, and the
locomotives were pushed well past the target before stopping again.  The
student was instructed that brakes should have been deployed to compress the
train prior to the stop.   Stopping with a stretched train allowed the rear
of the train to still be moving forward after the front had stopped so when
the "slack ran in" the front was pushed forward.

Consider a piano hammer as a train, the strike point being the locomotive,
and the tail the rear cars.  A hard hammer with no spring is like a
compressed train, where the tail stops at the same time as the strike point.
In a soft hammer the weight of the tail is still moving upwards after the
strike point has stopped.   A factor in tone is from the type of stop made,
or how much "run in of slack" or "after push" occurs when strike point
stops. 

You can voice rock hard hammer heads by adding controlled flexible weight
appendages to create the optimum amount of springy "after push" or "run in
of slack".  Choose a glue or caulk which dries flexibly or springy and add
to the inside of the tail cove. Trim and shape it for weight and amount of
flex.   A pronounced blob of glue of a given amount will have more flex than
the same amount spread in a thin layer inside the tail cove.   This is a
viable voicing method to develop and use in your arsenal.

-Mike Jorgensen