Steam treating hard hammers

[Barbara Richmond]

MessageHi Wayne,

Hmm.  Is this a grand or an upright?  What are the accoustics in the room like?

I haven't worked on any Chinese pianos. (What?! How could that be?)  Did you just treat the crown, or did you work on the shoulders, too?  Sorry, since I haven't worked on any of these I can only think in general terms of voicing, so I'm just guessing.  What type of needling did you do?  Needles, shallow and perpendicular to the crown?--or taking longer stitches under the string groves?  Anyway, on hard pressed hammers, just taking a swipe at the crown probably isn't going to give lasting or satisfactory results.  It would be best to soften the shoulders, too--it will broaden the tone--by increasing resiliency of the hammer/increasing the sustain.  Did you try vise-grips on the shoulders?  Squeeze enough to make the hammer felt cup a bit and then needle out the cup. 

I hope something here helps.

Barbara Richmond, RPT
living a protected life near Peoria, IL   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wayne Walker 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, June 11, 2007 2:34 PM
  Subject: Steam treating hard hammers


  I have a customer with a newer Chinese piano with harsh sounding hammers. I have tried chemical softener, needled and the piano still sounds bad. The customer has chemical sensitivity so I can't use anything in her home now. I was there a couple of weeks ago and used the steam method on the hammers and it work great. I was happy and the customer was happy, but today she left a voice mail saying the piano is harsh sounding again. How long will the steam method last? Will I need to do this often? I just want to have a happy customer with out having to swap pianos with her.

  Wayne

  Wayne Walker
  Piano Tuner / Technician
  Musicstop Acoustic Piano Service
  264 Herring Cove Road
  Halifax, NS, Canada
  B3P 1M1
  902-221-1540
  902-496-0041 Fax
  www.musicstop.com


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