Voicing the new piano

[SUSAN P SWEARINGEN]

Hi Everyone,

Below is a voicing method that was described in the last voicing post.
Sounds interesting.  Any others that have followed this technique?  As I
mentioned before, my 4 year old Yamaha U1 has extremely hard hammers and it
is extremely difficult getting needles in radially.  I'd like to try this
technique as described but wanted to see if anyone else has had good results
from it.





Rules for safe, effective voicing [from Ari Isaac website].

  a.. Don't change the shape of the hammer - this does not pertain to
filing.
  If the hammer requires filing, file first.
  b.. Think of the hammer and its function as though it were a tennis ball.
  You do not puncture the outside of the ball to make it more springy, you
change the air pressure inside.
  c.. Use a single needle, about .050" diameter (#2 crewel).  Use a pin vise
like an Isaac voicing tool.  Allow the point of the needle to stick out
about half an inch.
  d.. Voice by pushing the needle home into the flat side of the hammer.
  e.. Draw a line (on the hammer or in your mind's eye) tracing the outer
shape of the hammer and running half way between the outside of the hammer
and the wood molding. Push the needle home following the line you drew. Push
the needle home every 1/16" from the 9 o'clock position right around to the
3 o'clock position.
  f.. Depending on the hardness of the particular set of hammers, you may
need to stitch a second line closer to the outside of the hammer.
  g.. Working from bass to treble; when you come to the low treble section,
begin graduating down the number of needle pushes so that when you reach the
last octave you push the needle home only three times: 9, 12 and 3 o'clock.
  h.. Check your voicing often by listening to the tone.  You may find you
need to add a few stitches at this or that point around the hammer -
listening carefully to the tone will be your best instructor.
Using this method you will never do damage to a hammer because you leave the
outside layers untouched.  Your needle pushes into the flat side of the
hammers and will produce the effect of the inner felt fibres pushed around
by your needle straining against the outer layers producing a more efficient
energy transfer and greater flexing with no reduction of hammer firmness.
This produces a much larger and richer tone.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Newton Hunt" <nhunt@optonline.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Voicing the new piano


> This is the method recommended by Ari Isaac for voicing Isaac hammers.  He
> recommends voicing only the under half of the white felt which releases
all that
> compressed felt on the inside of the hammer.  I have tried it with varying
> results, as is most of my voicing.  Being totally blind he developed this
method
> so save fingers and blood.
>
> His perception is that the outer surface of the hammer is the skin, as an
> orange, and should not have holes poked into it.  It might leak. :)
>
> Air Isaac can be reached at isaacah@sprint.ca
>
> Newton
>
> SUSAN P SWEARINGEN wrote:
> >
> > Speaking of voicing, has anyone had much luck with side needling, that
is,
> > pushing the needle in from the sides of the hammer through the entire
width.
> > There was a nice little article on this technique some months ago in the
> > journal but I've not given it a try yet. For those of you familiar with
this
> > technique, it sounds more appropriate for older hammers, not new ones.
>