Hi, Terry: Even though the BB's I have serviced from the 1970's/80's have been pretty ugly inside and have had their share of inconsistencies, I have always admired their tonal characteristics, both their sustain and their warm sound. I like those hammers a lot better than the current generation, which don't match the traditional M&H sound without extensive voicing and maintenance -- much more than the funny green ones. But if this piano has been played heavily for some time, you are looking a lot of work preparatory to voicing, which might include restringing the top half of the piano, repinning hammer centers -- then leveling strings, tuning/retuning..., and filing hammers and juicing. Not a lot of work for the results, considering his purchase price. But if this guy wants a Yamaha sound he needs to get a Yamaha, and if he wants it out of the M&H good luck -- its a little sad..., although you can put Renner Blues, or Abels on it and you might make a fan out of him. Are the existing hammers really "little"? Often they are pretty fat. And they may never have been really worked with except to be played in mostly the white keys, and now desperately need shaping and may always have needed some juicing. If you take off the old hammers and they have something left send them to me, OK? No kidding. Let us know what happens! Bill Shull In a message dated 10/24/01 6:15:04 PM Pacific Daylight Time, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes: << Hello Listees. I tuned a 1979 Mason & Hamlin BB (Hand Crafted by American Craftmen) today at a small low (like, really low) budget recording studio. The young fellow (very enthusiastic) there was very interested in improving his prized piano. The voicing is horrible. His general comments were that the bass is excellent and the rest of the piano is too "dark", and "it doesn't sound like a Yamaha - will replacing the strings make it brighter?" - he wants it brighter. My observations were that the bass is very bright and brassy and loud and powerful. That drops right off with the lowest tenor note - very mellow and quiet - as is the rest of the piano - except for occassional tinny-bright notes in tenor and treble. The piano is in average shape over-all - it was in a church prior to this guy buying it 4 years ago (for $4,800). Anyway, to please this guy, the task is to brighten up all the plain wire sections in general, even out the few odd balls, and do something with the bass tenor break - it's worse than most spinets (is this common on this piano?). It has the little green hammers that M&H (Aeolian) used back in the 60s and 70s (always used???). I have not done much voicing. I have steamed a fair little bit. I have stuck a few hammers with needles with generally acceptable results. I have never tried to make hammers brighter. I have a lot of written material describing how to apply hammer hardener (laquer, etc.). What I am asking here is for some input on direction. Is a liquid hardener the way to start, etc., etc.? Any thoughts are welcome. I'm not afraid to put a soundboard in a piano, but voicing scares me - I can't hold it in my hand, I can't measure it, I can't cut it, I can't glue it! Terry Farrell >>
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