<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006>Tomorrow I have to go up against a new, out of the box, upright piano with ROCK hard hammers. I have been asked to voice the hammers down significantly in order to reduce the unpleasant brittle harsh cold sound. Last time I had to do this I just aggressively needled away for a long time. Very aggressively with lots of broken needles. Even after I was "finished" I was still unable to get a needle in more than about 1mm. </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006>Not too long ago, on the list, I read that treating hard hammers with a little alcohol would help un-compact the felt. However, these are new hammers and are probably hard because of a hardening treatment. Today's question is: Would a small alcohol treatment help? If not, what would you suggest?</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006>-- Geoff Sykes</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=671315500-15092006>-- Assoc. Los Angeles</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>