Hi Everyone, Below is a voicing method that was described in the last voicing post. Sounds interesting. Any others that have followed this technique? As I mentioned before, my 4 year old Yamaha U1 has extremely hard hammers and it is extremely difficult getting needles in radially. I'd like to try this technique as described but wanted to see if anyone else has had good results from it. Rules for safe, effective voicing [from Ari Isaac website]. a.. Don't change the shape of the hammer - this does not pertain to filing. If the hammer requires filing, file first. b.. Think of the hammer and its function as though it were a tennis ball. You do not puncture the outside of the ball to make it more springy, you change the air pressure inside. c.. Use a single needle, about .050" diameter (#2 crewel). Use a pin vise like an Isaac voicing tool. Allow the point of the needle to stick out about half an inch. d.. Voice by pushing the needle home into the flat side of the hammer. e.. Draw a line (on the hammer or in your mind's eye) tracing the outer shape of the hammer and running half way between the outside of the hammer and the wood molding. Push the needle home following the line you drew. Push the needle home every 1/16" from the 9 o'clock position right around to the 3 o'clock position. f.. Depending on the hardness of the particular set of hammers, you may need to stitch a second line closer to the outside of the hammer. g.. Working from bass to treble; when you come to the low treble section, begin graduating down the number of needle pushes so that when you reach the last octave you push the needle home only three times: 9, 12 and 3 o'clock. h.. Check your voicing often by listening to the tone. You may find you need to add a few stitches at this or that point around the hammer - listening carefully to the tone will be your best instructor. Using this method you will never do damage to a hammer because you leave the outside layers untouched. Your needle pushes into the flat side of the hammers and will produce the effect of the inner felt fibres pushed around by your needle straining against the outer layers producing a more efficient energy transfer and greater flexing with no reduction of hammer firmness. This produces a much larger and richer tone. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Newton Hunt" <nhunt@optonline.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 2:40 PM Subject: Re: Voicing the new piano > This is the method recommended by Ari Isaac for voicing Isaac hammers. He > recommends voicing only the under half of the white felt which releases all that > compressed felt on the inside of the hammer. I have tried it with varying > results, as is most of my voicing. Being totally blind he developed this method > so save fingers and blood. > > His perception is that the outer surface of the hammer is the skin, as an > orange, and should not have holes poked into it. It might leak. :) > > Air Isaac can be reached at isaacah@sprint.ca > > Newton > > SUSAN P SWEARINGEN wrote: > > > > Speaking of voicing, has anyone had much luck with side needling, that is, > > pushing the needle in from the sides of the hammer through the entire width. > > There was a nice little article on this technique some months ago in the > > journal but I've not given it a try yet. For those of you familiar with this > > technique, it sounds more appropriate for older hammers, not new ones. >
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