hammer voicing solutions

[John Musselwhite]

>>... I know many respected technicians use either lacquer,
>>sanding sealer, acetone/keytops, etc to extract a brighter tone.
>>
>
>I seem to recall hearing once that S&S adds lacquer to their hammers
>first, then voices them down.  If that is true, I would think that there
>is nothing wrong with using lacquer.  By the way, does anyone know if I
>am right about what S&S does with their hammers?

The S&S hammers are prepared with a mixture of lacquer and thinner in the
factory at about 1:3 or 1:4 before they ever hit the piano. The hammers are
soft after pressing and must be artificially hardened. There are several
advantages to doing it this way. One is that moths don't like lacquer and
another is they're less affected by moisture. It also results in using a
different voicing technique as you could pound away at the shoulders all day
and not make much difference, but often one needle through the strike point
will quiet a noisy hammer down.

They used to use shellac before the factory switched to lacquer in case
anyone's interested. They've been doing this a LONG time!

The S&S techniques really only works with S&S hammers though. I'd be very
hesitant about adding much lacquer to any other hammer, particularly a
hard-pressed one.  Perhaps others have more experience with various hammer
types.

BTW, Steinway Hall generally uses a keytop dissolved in acetone to make
juice for final voicing. It works extremely fast and dries almost instantly
and you should be very careful when using it. While lacquer can be applied
with a squeeze bottle, this should be done carefully with an eyedropper as a
final treatment. I dislike using the keytop solution for initial juicing as
it builds tone TOO fast and once it's applied lacquer isn't quite as effective.

If you have any other questions about S&S hammers or voicing techniques,
please let us know here. There are at least a few of us on this list who
have gone through the factory's hammer course and who are well-practiced in
the techniques.

                John


John Musselwhite, RPT               Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com              sysop@67.cambo.cuug.ab.ca