On Feb 11, 2011, at 8:45 AM, David Love wrote: > Let it dry overnight and go back and play each note a few times > while using the una corda pedal shifting back and forth which > sometimes breaks up the crustiness that forms on the top. Take a > piece of 120 sandpaper and just break the edge on the left side of > the hammer where the lacquer tends to collect and build a nice > crusty ridge that will ping with una corda engagements sometimes. > Then go in with a through the string voicing tool and check single > string voicing to smooth over any unwanted standouts in any group of > unisons. I prefer the method taught at the factory: after soaking and allowing to dry, lightly sand all hammer crowns, 120 or so paper, removing minimal felt but some. This takes away the glassy attack of the surface lacquer, and lets you hear whether you have enough power everywhere. If not, relacquer where needed, and repeat the scuff sanding, check again. Possibly a third application here and there. Voicing procedure starts with aligned hammers, marked for string grooves. Una corda position is voiced first, as it will affect the rest position to some extent. Then voice for rest position, single needle addressing each string contact, moving down the shoulder on each side as needed. But I think you need to start by being certain of the foundation: travel, square of hammers, reasonable mating to start with. These hammers were prehung as I recall, and you (Paul) said they needed next to no traveling. That raised my eyebrows, as it was contrary to my experience. The travel may look fair by the standard method, but doing it upside down may (will) reveal whole sections moving to one or other side, often a whole lot. ANd the square of the hammers on the shanks (burning) has needed extensive correction in my experience: they are pretty parallel, but whole sections leaning a LOT, more than I really want to burn. If you don't have a solid foundation of good travel and square, you are going to lose a lot of power. Mating is another point where you will lose a lot of power if it is not precise. When any or all of these three factors are chaotic (not consistent throughout, not precise), you end up with a lot of the sort of noises that you think you need to needle out. You do so, and you find that the power is even less, the tone is worse, yadda, yadda. For squaring hammers, I am going to attach a couple photos of my current procedure, which I like a lot. Raise every other hammer to strike position. Center each of the raised hammers between its neighbors _at the shank center_. (Flange spacing tool, screwdriver, whatever). Let them fall back. Burn to center the crowns between their two neighbors. Now repeat the procedure with the other half of the hammers. Try it, you'll like it! (Thanks to Ed Sutton for the every other hammer suggestion) Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110211/7a0fb437/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: P7220001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 29997 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110211/7a0fb437/attachment-0003.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: P7220004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 21595 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110211/7a0fb437/attachment-0004.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: P7220003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 28890 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110211/7a0fb437/attachment-0005.jpg>
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