<html> Jeff, I hear what everyone else is saying -- and I partly concur. That said, I have experience using alcohol and water on a variety of instruments, from rock-hard high-decibel Hamiltons and new small Samick uprights to (with great restraint, in certain very specialized applications!) Steinway grands. Even a 7-foot Yamaha ... several times. In fact, the 7-foot Yamaha is the piano I have dosed with alcohol the most. So I might as well share what I have found. First, this Yamaha is the closest relative of the piano they are considering letting the other guy work on. Mine was about ten years old, and was sold second-hand to a big church with lots of amplified music. They had a real pounder playing it a lot. After a year or two of this, I carefully filed the hammers a little, so that the string grooves weren't allowed to lengthen and start breaking wire. The piano had gotten terribly brassy, especially in the high treble. "Harsh enough to break glass" was how I felt about the top octave. After filing the hammers to a better shape, I used alcohol on the strike points in the sections which were harsher than I could tolerate. When I say I used alcohol (with water, to 100 proof) I mean that I used a few drops per hammer directly into the string grooves in the tenor, tapering to one small drop on each hammer in the top octave. Then I made a second pass, getting a handful of truly obnoxious and stubborn hammers, laying enough alcohol in (at the strike point) to soak down to about 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock on the shoulders. (I keep a plastic dropper bottle of it in my kit, inside a ziploc bag.) Kneading the (wet) grooves with my thumbnail helped, too. About three months later -- some areas were still all right, but around the middle, up to octave 6, had hardened up again. I gave a similar dose, but only to the places and individual hammers which asked for it. About three months later again -- most was exactly as I had left it, but maybe five or six hammers had hardened. I repeated the alcohol, but only on the five or six. This was about five years ago. The pounder took a break, then came back and started pounding again. The hammers are about ready for another filing. Now, for the caveat: The first two visits suggested that the hammers gradually pack back in after *!!*!*modest*!*!!* amounts of alcohol have gone into the strike points. HOWEVER, the third visit and subsequent visits prove that they harden back up only to a certain degree, and after that they perhaps _never do_, even when the hammers get beaten on enough to wear the ends flat. I have considered trying ironing and shellac (just behind the strike point, or possibly dripped into the sides, but not directly between the strike point and the molding) to see if a hammer which got a little too much alcohol might come back to life. I've never done this, though, and I have no idea to what extent overdosing with alcohol is retrievable. I try not to get into that situation in the first place. A second caveat: I attended a convention class where someone (who shall remain nameless) had used alcohol -- but instead of using two or three drops, this tech had dipped the hammers. In spite of listening to  praise to the skies for the wonderful tone this gave, I found that the hammers had absolutely no focus at all. (and probably never would again.) Tone is a matter of taste, but I certainly would not let hammers in that condition stay on a concert piano in a hall. A third caveat: I believe I remember hearing that Yamaha had so much trouble with people over-steaming hammers that they started saying steam would void the warranty. Jeff, if you want ammunition to prevent this procedure with alcohol, you might phone Yamaha and find out their policy with regard to alcohol and water in their hammers. That said, on extremely rare occasions I reach for alcohol for good pianos. For high quality grands where someone has over-juiced the top octave, so it is hard as glass, I find that one drop of vodka per hammer (NOT REPEATED!) can put a tiny amount of cushion back into the tone, without gutting the attack. One's options way up high are limited, anyway. There is so little felt that either filing or needling is problematic, and there is really not enough felt to squeeze. Fabric softener I consider an abomination. Alcohol -- a very useful tool for certain types of pianos, but it must be treated with great respect. I can see how it got a bad reputation -- because it only takes a few people over-using it to give it a bad name. I also have tried steaming, and watched Roger do his thing in a class. For me, steaming is too fast and makes too big a change. Alcohol is more controllable, within certain limits. One can put a small quantity where it is needed, slowly and carefully. At least, it tears no felt and leaves nothing behind, and is non-toxic. (And it won't give you a burn, like steaming or ironing ...) If someone knows what they are doing, you might be surprised by hearing good results on the CFIII -- but the Kawai KG-2D mush suggests that this may not be a tech who can act with sufficient discretion. Anyway, if you issue caveats, you should be in the clear. _You_ didn't ask them to bring someone in! And this is my experience with alcohol and water on piano hammers ... except that I can say one thing: when I meet a console which sounds simply goshawful, hard as nails, with grooves like chasms, alcohol lets me do a voicing in two passes, taking about five minutes, with great improvement. Of course, this is not the sort of piano one would do over and over again, so the irreversibility wouldn't be an issue. No matter what the provocation, I would never let the alcohol get below 10 a.m. or 2 p.m. (clock face) on any hammer shoulder. If that much alcohol doesn't do the trick, I use deep needling. The combination I find more effective than either alone. Susan At 05:50 PM 1/6/2006 -0700, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>List: I have a Yamaha CFIII here at UM.  Because of a political situation too complex to describe, an adjunct piano faculty here wants to bring in his "personal technician" to voice and regulate the piano.  He wants to use an alcohol/water solution on the hammers to voice.  The last piano he did this on (a Kawai KG-2D) was turned to mush, and I am concerned that is what would happen to our 9' Yamaha.  Do any of you have experience using this solution on Yamaha hammers, and have they been good or bad?  Of course, I'm not happy about them bringing in this other "tech", but it may be unavoidable due to the politics.  Thanks for any input. Jeff Stickney University of Montana _______________________________________________ caut list info: <a href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives" eudora="autourl">https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives</a></blockquote></html>