voicing mixtures and procedures

[Roger Jolly]

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Hi Antares,
                 We are both in agreement on the overall scheme of things.I no
longer use the Water/alcohol teatment for many of the reasons that you have
stated, how ever it can be a quick crude fix for heavily used practice pianos.
A bearly damp cloth and a hot iron, applied to the strike point will pop out
string grooves and greatly inprove the attack tone quality with No damage to
the felt. I NEVER advocate only one voicing method, and use steam as a prelude
to fine needling.
Many of use, that are a lot of voicing and rebuilding, are working a great
deal
with European hammers. (Renner and Abel) And prefer them to many of the North
American products.
Regards roger

As I am living somewhere in Europe, and, as I have no experience at all with
hammer softeners (since this seems to be an exclusively American tradition, I
would like to point out that, besides the use of hammer softeners there is
also
the old fashioned softening of the hammers with a voicing tool i.e. da
needles.......
Just to make sure that our dear American colleagues will not feel insulted,
critisized, or otherwise, I must emphasize the fact that I know nothing about
the process of softening hammers with softener, and that I have never worked
with it, and thus have no opinion nor critiscism
I do have, however, an opinion about hammers, since I have specialized over
the
years in regulation, tuning and..voicing.

It might be that not all of us technicians have more, a lot, or less,
experience
in voicing. 
It therefor could be wise to point out for the inexperienced ones on this list
that in all major piano factories there is a first voicing, and a second. (to
experienced or very experienced colleagues here on this forum : push the
delete
button please, there may be much more interesting messages waiting for you)

The first voicing is the one that is most important, for during this
process of
initial needling, the hammers will receive their energy-absorbing (or
dampening) amount of needling in their specific places (note that there is a
big difference in first voicing between most piano factories).
The first voicing, or, as they happen to call it in Japan "the making of
cushion", is crucial : too much cushion will result in a maybe sweet, but weak
and powerless tone (nothing to do about it really, except turbo-needling from
the bottom up, filing, or the last resort.. hammer dope.
Too little cushion will have as result a hard and narrow tone, like a loud but
nasal voice. The tonal quality will actually always demand for more
openness by
applying more cushion, but, since some technicians do not really have a
tremendous experience and insight in this, the tone will probably remain
unbalanced and underdeveloped for ever.

Voicing is so incredibly complex... 
First of all, as intoneurs, we must have a talent.
This talent we must develop, amongst others by sharpening our musical ears, by
tuning thousands and thousands of instruments, and... by accumulating a
thorough knowledge of the regulation process.
In one factory I learned the following and important rule : 
"A perfect tone is" : 
a perfect regulation - a perfect tuning - a perfect voicing.
And indeed, if we keep aiming for the highest result in these three totally
different disciplines, than the result will be accordingly, but only as far as
the development and experience of the technician involved.

Now, why did I write all this down?
Because it is necessary to point out that once the piano leaves the
factory, it
will have received its first and second voicing already (when it is a decent
factory of course).
If a piano tone gets hard, irregular, and more pronounced, it is usually
due to
the fact that the upper part of the hammers, the crown, will have gotten
harder
because they come into contact with the strings all the time. It is the crown
that gets hardened first by playing, not the middle section, or, the cushion.
Technicians often make the mistake to needle only "halfway" out of fear for
needling the crown.
The result will then be : more cushion, a weaker tone (like a big old buick
slamming on the ground because of a weak and worn out suspension), but still a
shrill and tinny sound, because the crown is still rock hard.
I would in this case reccomend needling on the sides of the crown, but
certainly not in other places. Only when a hammer is older, would it be
wise to
apply some more cushion, because now the middle section may have hardened too.

This process of needling the upper section takes me about 5-10 minutes, plus
afterwards some more "evening out". Don't be afraid by just "picking" at the
hammers....it will have hardly any result, and for one concert only...... no,
stick'm in with some force and not too fast (there is a nice American song
about "a slow hand with an easy touch" if you know what I mean (;>)).

Applying a softener might do wonderful work, but I just would not like to use
any strange or new stuff on an otherwise perfect and healthy hammer (unless it
had been hardened before with hammer dope, but that is a different story).
We have had this discussion before but then about the opposite : about
hardening hammers, but we found out that hammers made in the US are different
from the ones made in Europe.
Still, I like a hammer best, when it has the most beautiful felt (Wurzen
felt),
when it has a lot of "natural" power through the pressing process and the
natural strong resilience of the wool fibers, and, when it doesn't need any
additive in whatever form.

Friendly greetings,

Antares



Roger Jolly
BaldwinYamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505 
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