Phil writes: << My thinking is to go after it with a touch of steam, a little needling, and some hardener(lacquer) as needed. >> Hmm, sounds like you are going in three different directions! If the FFF sounds distorted, I usually suspect that the deepest felt is still too hard. A single needle, long enough to reach the core, will tell you if this is so. Try inserting it into the hammer from 11:00 and 1:00 O'clock positions. If it reaches a real stone-wall about half-way down, that may explain why the whole structure of the hammer is not working to produce tone. You may need to put the needle in a Dremel tool to do this. I am surprised, though. The several CFIII pianos I have seen have been very carefully voiced at the factory and seemed to have a pretty sophisticated tonal range in them. Good luck, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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