<html> At 04:14 AM 1/7/2006 -0500, Cy wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I was taught that t= he hammers should be allowed to dry before playing (to avoid packing the felt back down).  Is this how you do it, Susan?</blockquote> Not exactly, Cy. I try not to play the bass hammers till most of the moisture has wicked away, because I don't want to get water clinging in the grooves of the wrap, rusting the core wire. But in the treble, I sometimes find that if a hammer is a tough customer, and the alcohol and filing just haven't softened it down, sometimes a few good hard blows while still wet has more effect. I think that while wet the felt is pretty springy, and is more likely to do its *sproing!* thing rather than turning to a brick. It can be subtle, but sometimes I can hear the difference after a hard (wet) blow, and it is toward the mellow side. If I'm meeting a piano like a 20-year-old Korean grand which hasn't had anything but tuning and has seen heavy use, so that the hammers are really flattened on the ends and the grooves are very long, I do the alcohol first, and then the filing. This is because in a very neglected piano the felt at the strike point gradually flakes away, but the ends of the grooves, having had contact with the wire for a shorter time than the middle, has packed down instead of breaking and flaking off. (First it packs in, then later the packed fibers break and fly away.) Therefore, when the water gets to the grooves, the hammer bulges, and leaves a pair of little ridges. A few swipes of a hammer file smooths these over. I don't file to the bottom of grooves, especially before using the alcohol, because it takes off too much felt, and also because the packed felt in the grooves, even treated with alcohol, will still have a brighter tone than the felt surrounding, and the tonal contrast is better when the shift is used. I think that most of the bad rap which alcohol is getting has come from people being way too aggressive with it, without understanding what it can do. Once the shoulders are soaked, the hammers are pretty well shot, is my impression. 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. There's one Steinway in a studio here so over-softened (not by me) that it might be a candidate, but so far no one has asked me to try to bring it back, and I don't plan to beg trouble unless I have to. Thanks for sharing your experience, Cy. We seem to have had some of the same results. Given that budgets are usually inadequate and pianos are in need, I think there's a place for these minimal interventions, so long as everyone understands that the hammers are more or less toast, and this is a stopgap. If it works, sometimes for quite awhile, why not? One isn't trying it on their premium concert piano. One does it to the clapped out old grand which they have neglected for years, which nobody wants to play any more. Susan </html>