Brian writes:
>Some thoughts to date
>are scattered; hammers are too hard, (voicing seems to help a little,
>but it's still there), hammers striking the string in the wrong place,
>(haven't been able to play with this one yet), too much bearing,
Greetings,
ok, I will shoot from the hip; It could be anything, but it sounds like
hammers. This is the sound I hear when the foundation work on the voicing has
been omitted. You will need to make sure that the strings are mated
well with the hammer, and then take a long needle and loosen up the shoulders
of the hammers. I greatly prefer single needle voicing. ( If they are
chemically hardened, this is probably not going to work).
It may take 6 or 8 full penetrations to the underfelt from the 9:00-9:30
and 2:30-3:00 o'clock positions. Short stabs won't do the job, you want the
entire mass of felt to relax just a little bit. Following the needles, a few
light taps with a little bitty hammer helps the felt to adjust more quickly,
Renner hammers exhibit this trait, and Rick Baldassin's booklet addresses the
"break-up" character of the sound as the first chore to tackle. I disagreed
two years ago, but I have come to see that it is important.
This groundwork may need to be followed by equally deep needling, farther
up, approx. to the 11:00 and 1:00 o'clock locations, but you will want to
listen as you go when cutting felt that close to the strike point.
The above procedure is entirely inappropriate on Steinway factory
hammers.
Good luck,
Ed Foote
( I keep some band-aids in the voicing kit, too!)
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