Bill, I agree with you. For improving the overall sound of the piano, Vice-Grips deliver more bang for the buck than any tool except the tuning lever. I use the method taught by Wally Brooks for voicing his new hammers. He sets the large Vice-Grips at 1/4" and squeezes the lower shoulders of each hammer starting at A0 and going about 2/3 of the way up the scale. Yes, this leaves a mark on the hammers. I like to wrap some electrical tape on the adjusting screw to keep the setting at 1/4". I always do some deep needling at about 10 O'Clock and usually the "sugar coating" treatment. I consider the Vice Grip treatment _a must_ if the hammers are old and have to be re-shaped. It has never failed to restore glorious tone. It really evens out the problem area at the break. I charge my highest rate for this work. This voicing technique is of a higher priority than regulating in terms of overall improvment of the piano. I think it should be taught as one of the fundamental skills, not as one of the finer points to be left for later. I sure wish I'd learned it sooner rather than later! Walter Sikora, RPT Chapel HIll, NC At 11:01 PM 11/27/97 +0000, you wrote: >I have been reading all the posts about wetting hammers, steaming hammers, > stabbbing them with needles, washing plastics and lacquers in and out of >them, ironing them, etc. I am beginning to feel pity for the poor little >things. > >Let's have it! Who out there has had good or bad experiences with plier >voicing! Are there any strong prejudices about the way one massages wool >fibers in hard hammers? > >IMHO - Two minutes of plier voicing, which uses gas burner pliers or small >Vice Grip pliers to squeeze the shoulder areas of hammers that is normally >needled in voicing, can make a huge improvement in tone, especially to Jesse >French spinets, Winter spinets, and 1910 big old uprights with rock hard >hammers. I use the technique on perhaps 4 or 5 pianos a year and never charge >for it because an entire set of hammers can be treated in less than three >minutes. I am not suggesting that one go regulate a Steinway concert grand >this way, -- but WHY NOT? - It is/was a technique very heavily used decades >ago but has become unfashionable now. I would love to hear technical reasons >for its demise! > >I KNOW that one is supposed to sell a new set of imported hammers and a >$200.00 voicing job on these PSO's, but that is unrealistic. By the way, > the plier voicing holds for about 6 months to a year. > >(Putting on my flame retarding suit) >Bill Simon >Phoenix >
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