String Levelling guestions

[Bill Ballard]

>In a message dated 4/5/98 11:26:06 AM, A440A@aol.com wrote:
>  Hammers mated to strings should be as integral to voicing as sharp
>needles, or solid hammer support, or any of the other necessities.  If you are
>only sticking needles in hammers, and doing it without level strings,  I think
>time is being wasted, and hammers are being damaged.  ( not to even mention
>the disastrous changes that can occur with the una corda pedal).
>     Often, the leveling is the faster way to even out the voicing than
>changing the hammer.  Extreme cases can cause dampers to be held off newly
>lowered strings,  so get into it with your eyes and ears open.
>Regards,
>Ed">>

Well voiced, thank you......

On Sun, 5 Apr, JIMRPT <JIMRPT@aol.com> wrote:
>Order of "voicing" precedence will vary according to each techs own "wick
>trimming" but mine would be, usually,:
>1. Even action touch.
>2. Hammer crown/shoulder squareness.
>3. Hammer/string spacing.
>4. Hammer rise.
>5. Tuning.
>6. Hammer voicing (overall level)
>7. String leveling.
>  5a. Tuning
>8. Hammer voicing (individual attetion)
>  5a. Tuning.

I'll certainly concur with the small "Mulberry Bush" reiterations which are
necessarily a part of this work. But I insist on hammer filing (finishing
up with sighting the hammer line against a straight edge), then open string
work, then (unavoidably) a tuning, and only then the "acupuncture". Until
the open string work is done and all strings are being struck solidly, I'm
not interested in how the texture of the hammer felt at the strike point
may be controlling tone.

To quote (shamelessly) from my earlier writing in the PTJ:

"If the overall strategy of regulation and voicing is to marshall all of
the power of the action and the hammers and then to decide how much of that
is musically useful, then such a complete hammer-string fitting is a
full-throttle test of the piano. You will observe some settling-in of the
open string work especially during the first hour or so of voicing,
especially as the crown puffs up from the initial acupuncture. But fairly
soon, you'll find that the uneven timbre from string to string is no longer
due to poor contact or other string voicing. What a pleasure it is to have
the piano finally in such condition that only the voicing needle is
required to perfect the tone, and your concentration can devote itself
entirely to the effects of that tool." (PTJ, 8/90, p.15).

(Sorry about the earlier incorrect reference to this article last night.
10/89 was when I submitted it. It showed up some time later. And yes, I
stopped setting up U.C. half pedaling with a drill bit not long after the
article appeared!)

Bill Ballard, RPT
New Hampshire Chapter, PTG

"You'll make more money selling my advice than following it" Steve Forbes,
quoting his father, Malcom.