JIV-jumping into voicing

[R E Barber]

I had a chance to speak with hammer & bass string craftsman Ari Issac 
at the San Francisco Chapter meeting this month.  The most impressive 
things he taught me was to listen to great piano recordings, even old 
recordings, and figure out what kind of tone you like and what you're 
working towards.  And dont be afraid to juice the shoulders.   He 
explained hammers are like tennis balls- they collapse a bit on impact, 
then spring back imparting a secondary force to the strings.  Felt has 
to be springy while resisting wear.  Juicing the shoulders can serve to 
reflect more of the impact back to the string.  The force is controlled 
by loosening fibers between the strike point and the core by needling 
from the side.  By the reason of the shoulders acting to reflect the 
spring force towards the srike point, the shoulders are not to be 
weakened by needling.
We heard him demonstrate this- the difference was impressive.  There 
was a range of opinions as to whether or not the change was good, a 
matter of taste.  The subject piano had a new set of his hammers, and 
had a very clear and complex overtone klang, when compared with the 
steinway sets beside it, which was mostly fundamental in comparison.