[CAUT] upright plucking

[Fred Sturm]

hi Wim,
	My approach to upright mating is to take a brass drift and give a  
tap on the three string unisons just below the v bar to get them  
roughly level (and give them a positive bend at the v bar, which  
gives more definition to the tone). Then I take the filed hammers,  
press a group lightly against the strings with a sandpaper strip (120  
- 180) between hammers and strings, and give a quick, light pull.  
Maybe do that again.
	Before going to that trouble, do some reasonably good traveling and  
squaring of the hammers. Many uprights are horrible in those regards.
	Those things done, an upright can see remarkable improvement. Ready  
for some needling. For the lower shoulders, I go into each side.  
Otherwise, fairly standard procedures.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu



On Jul 25, 2006, at 2:13 PM, Willem Blees wrote:

> Speaking of phing..pck..pluug, I have never seen any discussion on
> this list about mating upright hammers, much less vocing them. I just
> did one of the practice room uprights, and thought I would give it a
> try. I shaped the hammers, and I thought they looked pretty good. But
> just for the heck of it, I tried plucking strings. I gently pushed the
> hammer up to the string, stepped on the damer pedal, and sure enough,
> on about a dozen or so notes, I could hear one of the strings ringing.
> In the upper treble, where there isn't enough room to pluck above the
> hammer, I used a thin screw driver to gently rake accross the strings.
> It didn't take too much sanding to straighten the striking surface
> out, and I tried to get down under the hammer as muchas possible to
> try to keep a round head.
>
> Comments
>
> Wim
>
> Willem Blees, RPT
> Piano Tuner/Technician
> School of Music
> University of Alabama
> Tuscaloosa, AL USA
>