steam voicing

[Farrell]

Hello Michael. I'm curious what kind of problems have you had trying to
steam voice. I (and others?) may be having problems and don't even know it
(now THAT's a problem!).

I use pieces of cloth from old cotton bedsheets. Seems to work fine.

Regarding the iron cooling. I don't know what your background is BUT (some
of us work on different.....er, um...."grades" of pianos). When Roger Jolly
does his steaming, there is VERY little water on his raggies. With very
little water, the iron does not cool rapidly. Keep in mind also that it MAY
be the case that Roger Jolly (and people like him - you know the type) does
not spend all day voicing Betsy Ross spinets that haven't had hammers voiced
in 50 years. He is often making very small adjustments to hammer voicing (on
pianos like Steenways and Yarmerhas - I have heard of these). Real
technicians, such as......well, like me for instance..... who DO spend much
of their day tuning/voicing Betsy Ross spinets (and other similar forms of
?musical? detritus) tend to watch what Roger does and think something like:
"well, if Roger can make those nice subtle voicing adjustments to that
Bosendorfer with his steam voicing, I'll bet I can do a real nice job
softening the tone of those concrete-sounding hammers on Mrs. Wurlystein's
lovely spinet that her mother learned to play on - I'll just add a little
more water to my raggies that Roger does - that ought to do it!" It does,
but when you use fairly wet rags, it does cool the iron before you can even
do one section. My experience is that when you use only a little water like
Roger does, the iron will sizzle that raggie even if you do the whole piano
without stopping.

Hi Roger. I trust your sense of humor knows no bounds!

This has been a report from the third-world battle front.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Musial" <piano@villagehost.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 8:47 PM
Subject: steam voicing


> Hi
>
> I have had a few problems trying steam voicing. This may actually
> be caused by the fact that I am not using Irish linen as Roger
> suggests. I have been using cotton muslin and it is not that great. I
> can not find real linen anywhere locally. (I am about to finally order
> some online) Anyway... Do most of you actually use linen for steam
> voicing?
>
> My 40 watt iron seems to only be able to steam a few hammers
> before cooling off. I then have to wait a minute or so before steaming
> a couple more then the wait begins again. Is this typical? Do I just
> need more patience :)
>  --
>
>  Michael Musial
>  Reedsville Pa
>
>
>