Vise Grips voicing is not a vice

[gordon stelter]

The one steaming job I've done was on a Yamahaha from
the 70's that sounded like the hammers were of
aluminum. I went all out and bought one of those
Bissel pressure-steam-blaster thingees ( about $175 )
and blasted the fool out of them, leaning the action
against a wall. 10 years later it remains an
acceptable sounding piano.
     Thump


David Love <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Unfortunately, I think that pliers are often the
> only choice with hammers
> like that.  Yamaha, btw, does not recommend the use
> of pliers, at least not
> officially.   I don't disagree with the procedure
> itself, it's hammers that
> require such treatment that I disagree with.  
> 
> David Love
> davidlovepianos@earthlink.net
> 
> 
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Dave Nereson <davner@kaosol.net>
> > To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > Date: 7/26/2004 11:47:17 AM
> > Subject: Vise Grips voicing is not a vice
> >
> > I gotta side with David Love here, and others that
> take this position.
> > Hammers that require draconian treatments such as
> pliers-mashing to get
> > them soft enough to at all useable are not high
> quality piano hammers to
> > begin with. Ok ok... lots of cheapos use such
> hammers... and a mans
> > gotta do what a mans gotta do and all that I am
> sure... but decent
> > voicing on decent instruments does not involve
> this kind of thing.
> >
> > Cheers
> > RicB
> >
> >     I strongly disagree.  Yamahas, Kawais, Young
> Changs, and a few other
> > Asians makes are considered decent instruments,
> yet after a few years of
> > heavy playing (or even when brand new!), and in
> dry climates, can exhibit
> > extremely hard hammers that break strings.  Rather
> than break up and cut
> the
> > fibers with sharp needles, which, especially on
> Yamahas, makes them pull
> > apart at the crown, I opt for, as someone else put
> it, "deep tissue
> > massage".  [Webster's Collegiate:  Draconian --  .
> . . ; barbarously
> severe,
> > harsh].  Some of these hammers require severe
> treatment.  I wouldn't
> > consider it barbarous or harsh, if that's what it
> takes to be able to get
> > them to accept voicing needles.  As I said in
> another post, the Vise Grips
> > are for gross, initial hammer softening, not for
> fine concert voicing.
> > Steaming can also work if the hammers aren't
> excessively hard, but it
> > affects mostly the surface and doesn't loosen up
> the felt deep in the
> > shoulders.  I don't believe in stabbing and
> stabbing and pricking and
> poking
> > until the fibers are all torn up, there are
> hundreds of prick holes in the
> > hammer, and you've got carpal tunnel syndrome and
> tennis elbow.  --David
> > Nereson, RPT
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info:
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> 



		
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