lacquer softener

[Bill Ballard]

At 9:27 AM -0500 4/27/03, Mike  Spalding wrote:
>I tried the Downy method only once, on my own piano.  It certainly 
>de-brightened the tone the way I wanted it to, but shortly 
>afterwards I noticed the string grooves in the bass section had 
>turned green.  Other techs in my chapter said this never happened to 
>them, so maybe it was just concidence.  Nevertheless, I would 
>recommend caution with this method.

Try Snuggles. My first time, I had no idea of the proportions and did 
1:4. They sounded like raw NY Steinway hammers afterwards , but at 
least they could be re-reinforced like raw NY, as well. It worked, 
but scared the heck out of me. Now I use David Porritt's recipe. I 
gave up on steaming heavily lacquered hammers. The steam might want 
to make the felt mass expand, but it could do nothing to break the 
lacquer's "chaining' the fibers together.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

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