Voicing Help

[David Ilvedson]

You need a normal voicing tool...3 needles.   I would REALLY recommend Jurgens adjustable voicing tool!!!!   He sends me a couple dollars for every sale I get him...;-]     Lay the action down on a couple of 2X4s (underneath end brackets)  Use a thin board underneath the area you are voicing to give something solid to needle into and raise the hammers.   Start in the Bass with 4 mm extended needles and work each hammer from 9 am up to 11 am and the other side 3 pm up to 1 pm.   Smack the tool with some force into the felt.   You are loosening up the shoulders.   Put it back in the piano and take a listen...I like to start in the bass to get an idea of what will happen before I move into tenor.   You should have a nice difference...lay it down again and proceed into the tenor with may 3 mm extended needles.   Go up half way and check in the piano again.   Continue up the piano bringing in the needles as you go up.   You can leave the top octave for now.   It doesn't get played much and you want each end of the piano brighter.   Now you need to work closer to the strike point for finer work.   needles 3 mm for the bass getting shorter as you go up.   Turn tool to 45 degrees and voice across on both sides up to 11:30 and 12;30.   Stop and listen often.   You will hear that old Yamaha sound you use to have.   Finally sugar coat the strike point.   Another quick fix that doesn't last is to use a vegetable cleaning brush...plastic bristles...experiment with stiffness.   

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: KeyKat88 at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 5/4/2008 3:32:40 PM
Subject: Voicing Help


>Greetings,
> 
>         I usually shallow needle  my Yami's U3 hammers after tuning to take 
>off the "glassy" edge. However,  after 10+ years of playing on this piano 
>(This is my personal piano),  sugar-coating ain't cutting it anymore.  The hammers 
>sound  ear-piercing. I side needled the area just in front of the wood core,  
>but this only alleviated the ear piercing sound a little. These hammers  were 
>packed hard too!  Is Yamaha hammer  quality the problem?  What am I doing 
>wrong? ...or aren't I needling  enough?  
> 
>Thanks
>Julia Gottshall
>Reading, PA 



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