List Thought I'd share my recent experience in converting an old upright into a Tack Piano, since this is something probably not many of you have ever had to do. No great surprises along the way, but the biggest surprise was how little difference the tacks made. I thought this was going to be a "hard as nails", "glass breaking", type of sound, and it turned out actually kind of sweet, dulcimer-like. If anything, the piano was quieter than it was before. It certainly had less sustain, but the attack was somewhat gentle and overall, pleasing. Another surprise was that the hammers themselves were NOT ruined by the insertion of the tacks, as someone suggested in my earlier queries about this subject. I removed several of the tacks to reposition them, and took the opportunity to audition the sound of the hammer once it had a big hole from the tack in it. It definitely improved the sound and was mellow, round, and full. (I can see the PTG Journal article now: Take A New Tack On Voicing!) Keep in mind that the original hammers had a flat spot at the strike point with huge grooves. (I used the center groove as my template as to where to insert the tack in order to center it.) This in itself has an impact on the above two paragraphs. First of all, the tone was pretty strident before putting on the tacks. And secondly, just about anything stuck into the hammer would probably have improved the tone on this puppy. Other little surprises: you gotta glue the tacks in; they come out pretty easily. (I used CA glue.) The strike point didn't seem to matter all that much. It was difficult to get the tacks in so that they hit the strings squarely in the top octave, due to the small hammer surface in which to insert the tack, and the fact that the wood moulding prevented the tack from being put in right smack dab in the middle of the hammer's strike point. I had to put them in slightly below, and as such, many of them were angled downward. There was still metal hitting the string, but more the edge of the tack, rather than the center. In spite of this, the tacked hammers sounded fine up there, as even, tone-wise as you could expect. I used metal tacks with metal heads. I installed the tacks with the action in the piano. It took less than an hour. The client loved the sound. Tom Sivak Chicago
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC