Straight acetone will actually make them harder. In fact, you can use it to bring up the tone just slightly on a set that's slightly soft. I suppose it causes the felt to shrink a bit. I vote for changing them. After you take them off you can cut them open and look for fossils. Short of that you can soak them in isopropyl alcohol (30% H2O type) which will cause them to balloon a bit but tends to make the tone soft and dead rather than hard and dead. Or you can try the Vise-Grips method, as Jon mentioned. Or a combination, soak plus steam plus Vise Grips which will make them softer though they still won't sound good and you may end up changing them anyway. David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Phil Bondi Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 2:42 PM To: Newtonville Subject: Voicing down hammers Hi all. I recently met up with a set of Imadegawas that needed to 'whisper'. The reason for the whisper is because there's a player system attached to it, and of course, it's too loud. I was surprised at how much Acetone and Controlled Steam voicing these hammers were able to take...but. They're still as hard as concrete and they're not whispering yet. They're still too hard for needles. I soaked the hammers 4x in Acetone and steamed them 4x and 5x in the bass. That seems like alot for any hammer to take, and they're still rock hard. Any suggestions..short of changing them out, which is not an option? Thanks, -Phil Bondi(Fl)
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