HI Ed, Thanks for your response. Your observations RE the tonal requirements and expectations of many pianists are, I think, corroborated by many on this list. Do you think that "relaxing" the shoulders via steam simply eases the internal tension / compression forces, or does the process take it further in that the internal forces are rendered more or less overly relieved and superfluous? I have read other past posts RE steaming hammers, but not from you (I don't think). Could I prevail upon you to add a bit more explanation as to: 1) wringing out in the flannel strip 2) dimensions of flannel strip and placement prior to ironing 3) what kind of iron and heat setting you recommend 4) what constitutes a '"fast pass" of the iron 5) do you position flannel and iron immediately, or let soak for a minute (man!)? I don't wish to remove the power, but to create as broad a dynamic range as the belly and hammers can give. My plan is to "break the code" on several hammers with needles. But if that code requires dozens of stitches per hammer, than I will consider plan B ------ steaming, or whatever else, and refine with needles as you suggest. I will practice on some spare hammers. Thanks again, Ed. And thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion. Nick On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com> wrote: > Dale says: > > Yes & then the hammer maker becomes the scape goat. How grossly > unfair.!!!! > But the turkey will continue to be stuffed until hammer sampling becomes > common place....in another 20 or 30 years? hope not. > There are a bunch a smart guys in our business & on this list who are > figuring it out. > > I know what I like, and it is getting harder to sell. The younger > students all seem to gravitate to the brassiest pianos. When the Yamahas > were replaced by some rebuilt STeinways, the immediate complaint was that > they had "weak actions". I took this with a grain, since as I walked up to > the small practice room, I find the student playing FFF with the lid all the > way up. How am I going to sell a nice, round, full-bodied hammer to him? He > and others prefer the brightest piano that can be found, and I wonder what > sort of conversations they are having with their teacher inre "tone". I > don't know if I need another battlefront around the school....... > Private customers usually are real happy to hear that their GHRKX-44 or > whatever can be mellowed out. On the majority of actions from the Asian area > of the last 20 of so years, I don't bother with needles. Steam goes so fast, > so evenly, and so easily, that my needles are never first choice on this > genre of piano. It is common to probe a little to even things out, and some > of the bass breaks need a pretty deep treatment, so I do use the pins, but > not to begin with. The steamed shoulders usually allow needles to move in a > much more dignified manner, too. > I use a strip of flannel with a fast pass of the iron and these > calcified mallets start behaving like the sheep they are. > Regards, > Ed Foote RPT > http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html > -- Nick Gravagne, RPT AST Mechanical Engineering -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101001/6ae59e8e/attachment-0001.htm>
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