On Jun 12, 2010, at 5:15 AM, Richard Brekne wrote: > my gut feeling goes the opposite of Freds. I would think the slow > movement of pressing would allow some fibres to be pushed off to one > side or the other rather then cut, where as the quick stabbing would > just move too fast for this to happen. I thought that was precisely what I was saying. > Further, pressing allows one to either re-enter an already open > channel to either spread further or to move in deeper. I find this > latter to be of tremendous value when the power of the lower > shoulders (what André refers to as the battery of the hammer) is > used up. Going in to the tip of the core at about 11:30 very slowly > with one needle releases an often untouched source of extra power, > that very compact area right around the core itself. I have the > sense that this also loosens up a hammer that has been used over > many years as well.... that after many years of use not just the > surface area gets compressed but the entire depth of the hammer gets > further packed. The resulting sound is one that lacks body, > depth.... going in deep at the core one needle slowly at a time can > yield a wide open beautiful sound with increased power as well... > much like opening up the lower shoulders in new hammers does. I agree about being able to feel and control with pressing technique. And about deeper one needle work. I think deep single needle as you describe can be effective anywhere you penetrate more deeply than the initial "pre-voice" (deep shoulder needling, typically about 5 mm). The battery isn't just at the lowest shoulder, it is everywhere in the core of the hammer, where there is dense felt that hasn't been "massaged" to loosen it up. Loosening up means the springiness of the individual fibers is released, and they will press out on the outer layers. But this doesn't work when the outer layers have been massacred. I have run into this several times: the tone is kind of dead and uninteresting, and there is no spectrum to speak of. Feel the shoulders, and there is some give - seems to have been pre-voiced okay. Stick in needles, and they go in 3 - 4 mm without any resistance to speak of. A little deeper, though, and there is a lot of resistance. But deep needling doesn't really bring the hammers up, and nothing seems to work. Similarly with steaming or adding a solution including some water to similar hammers, and watching them "come apart" - as I have seen described a few times on this list (haven't experienced it myself). The integrity of the outer layers has been compromised so much that they don't hold together, and don't contain the pressure of the inner fibers. My take is that this is caused by destruction of fibers of the outer layers by too much rapid stab voicing, not very deep. And I have observed people doing this on many occasions - a lot of random hacking, and the needles don't penetrate all the way more than maybe 1/4 of the time. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Brecht
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