I find this system useful in the tenor and bass when keeping the shoulders from becoming too rigid is a benefit or when the hammer set is very soft and requires a stronger solution. In the treble I find it's not that useful or easy to apply the solution without it creeping up over the crown anyway. There I just wick it slowly in from the shoulders trying to get it to creep under the crown before it creeps up to the top of the crown. In order to keep the lacquer from crusting on the top of the hammer I sometimes add a couple of small drops of pure acetone (with a fine needled 2 oz oiler) to the top of the crown right after application does that job well. In the last five or six notes that is not necessary nor really desirable as it's often difficult to get those hammers hard enough as it is and the surface crustiness doesn't present the same problem. Also, with these particular Weickert felt hammers I've only really had to harden the upper two octaves and then with a very weak solution (9:1) so the felt does not seem to lose its elasticity. Nice to see your name on the list again Mr. Ballard. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Wiliam Ballard Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 7:09 AM To: Pianotech List Subject: Re: [pianotech] Wurzen/Weickert felt On Feb 17, 2009, at 9:38 AM, David C. Stanwood wrote: My other comment.... when I was in School at North Bennet St. (1978) Bill Garlick taught us a technique which is very useful on these cold pressed hammers as a really safe way of using lacquer for building drive in the tone. Tip the stack up on its side and add some lacquer to the felt just above the tip of the moulding... do one side then turn it around and do the other... It gives foundation to the tone without having any deleterious effects on the surface of the felt and maintains a beautiful ppp quality that is the hallmark of a cold pressed hammer. The technique is consistent with the Dolge model of voicing.? I've been using this to very good effect for about six years now, after hearing it mentioned on PTx (referred to as the "Pearl of Power", as I remember). Mechanically what's happening is that the felt just above the underfelt (and the underfelt itself) is being moved from the flexible, live category (hammer felt) to the solid, inert category (wooden hammer moulding). Apparently, it's possible to have too much felt for good tone (especially considering that the part from the strike point on down the hammer CL where actual squash-under-impact occurs is quite shallow). Hardening under the strike point has the effect of extending the height of the moulding and subtracting from the thickness of the felt covering. I stay away from reinforcing the strike point unless it's quite clear that that's the only thing which will get me the sound I want. Best Regards, mrbl -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090217/f6b3173b/attachment-0001.html>
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