[CAUT] Alcohol/water on Yamaha hammers

[Jeff Stickney]

Susan Kline wrote:
>  At least, I've never had the opportunity to work on a set which have 
> been submerged or over-steamed, to see if I could resuscitate them. 
> Some skills it's just as well not to develop unless the necessity is 
> dropped into one's lap ... which might happen to Jeff if matters 
> proceed as he describes.
List,

That might well happen to me since I learned that the work was done 
today with what I believe are disastrous results.  However, the person 
who clued me into what transpired had this to say:

"He (the tech) had his digital camera with him, and said I must look at 
his photos of the Yamaha he had just taken. He showed me several 
pictures of really ugly looking hammers, kinda like they had been 
attacked with a course rasp or something. He said this happened when he 
applied his al/h2o solution.  He thought it was the result of very 
aggressive, bad needling, and his water treatment relaxed the hammer 
felt, and the result was destroyed felt across the crown.  He said he 
was glad the adjunct was with him as his witness, so no one would think 
he did this to the hammers. (of course, maybe it could be argued that 
his water treatment did this to the hammers, I don't know).  He said the 
only way to fix the problem is new hammers."

So apparently they are trying to turn this around to make it look like 
the alcohol was not the cause of making the hammers look bad (i.e. 
ruining them), but that the hammers were ruined before he did anything.  
I haven't heard anything since then to know whom they have talked to or 
what they are saying.  I did manage to call the chair and inform him of 
the prevailing opinion about using alcohol and water, so at least I got 
that word in before they had a chance to make their case.  I have no 
idea where this will end up, but I'm not looking forward to having to 
deal with these people.  As before, stay tuned.

Jeff Stickney