<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> I think you might want to drop Andre Oorebeck a line when he gets back from vacation. He seems to have a feel for Yamaha hammers like few others I have run into.  Having been to the Yamaha Japan academy 3 times for voicing lessons, he should. But I think one of the things you are going to find out is that you will need to "touch up" the voicing quite often. Concert voicing, for serious classical usage, seems more demanding then any other voicing situation IMHO. Especially if you have an instrument that gets used a lot, and they want it in the 98% + performance range the whole time. If the hammers are not shot, over worn, or over needled. I see no reason why a new set of hammers would be necessary. Cheers RicB Tom Merrill wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> List:I am the contract tech at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO. We have a new 280 seat recital hall that has a very bright lively acoustic and is easily overdriven by vocals and instrumentals.  I'm having a "dickens" of a time keeping the Yamaha CFIII (circa 1987) with Yamaha hammers voiced down fairly mellow yet articulate to please the pianists.  They want lots of color with projection, but not too loud.  The piano gets used for solos and accompanying small ensembles and vocals. I took every voicing class and voicing tutoring in Chicago last summer and the Little Red School House last fall, but lack the 30 years experience demanded by the situation!! I can get the level of brightness where we like it for a short period of time by high shoulder needling and a little sugarcoating on the crown.  But a week or two later, the felt packs down and it gets too bright again.  I've read in the archives that this piano has a fairly heavy SB structure to compensate for the softer woods in the rim and needs a fairly robust (w)hammer to get things moving.  It seems to me that we may have the wrong instrument and/or hammers for the application and that if we want a delicate, articulate colorful piano, we oughta buy a Steinway that sounds that way to begin with.  Too bad the State of Colorado doesn't win its own lottery.... Is anyone else successful in what I am trying to do and could share some tips?  I've thought about putting on a set of Isaac Cadenzas.  Is this a good idea? The other piano in the room for duets is a Yamaha C7 (circa 2000). Thanks for your ideas. Tom MerrillGrand Junction, CO (where minimum wage is a high paying job)</blockquote> -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A>   </body> </html>