Voicing story

[DAVander@aol.com]

   I have enjoyed reading the postings on this discussion list.  Here is
something you might enjoy.

     I tuned a piano recently for a man who used to play a lot of ragtime and
saloon style music as an entertainer on a river-boat.  At some time in the
past he put a lot of shellack on the hammers of his piano to harden them up
and to make it have a very bright, almost harsh, tone.   He likes his piano
to sound like a saloon piano. (I don't like the way it sounds, but it is his
piano, not mine.)

Today he told me this story (possibly apocryphal).

Quite a few years ago, this man knew a  music teacher that he disliked.  This
music teacher owned a Chickering grand and admired the way his piano sounded
(very hard hammers) and asked how she could make her piano sound like his
piano.
The man said, "Do you have a dog?"
She answered, " Yes."
He said, " Take some of the hair from your dog and mix it with molasses and
paint the crown of your hammers with it."
 Well, she did just as he said.  When she saw him next, she told him that her
hammers were sticking to the strings and that it didn't sound anything like
his piano.  (Needless to say, she had to have new hammers and a restringing
job).  The man told her that he had been only joking with her and that she
should have been smart enough to know better than to follow his instructions.

I don't know if the story is true or not, but this is how it was told to me
today!    After talking with him and knowing his personality, I can believe
that he would give such malicious advice.

So, does anyone want to try my new voicing solution to harden hammers?
  Write for particulars on the secret (patent pending) formula.  ;-)

Sincerely,
David Vanderhoofven
davander@aol.com


...Hukd on foniks wurkd for me