<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2873" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"> <P>I'd be leaping on those puppies with my modified Vice-grips (a la Wally Brooks) followed by a lightly damp rag and the back side of my voicing iron, i.e., steam.</P> <P>The needle-in-a-Dremmel works well.</P> <P>I'd try all those things before spending a day trying to, as one put it, "split hickory knots using a corn dodger as a wedge and a pumpkin for a mallet."</P> <P>A quote for Texans: "The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon."  Frederick Law Olmsted, 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856)<BR><BR>Alan Barnard<BR>Salem, MO<BR>Joshua 24:15<BR></P> <P><BR><BR><BR> </P> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 3px solid; PADDING-TOP: 5px"> <HR> Original message<BR>From: "Geoff Sykes" <THETUNER@IVORIES52.COM><BR>To: "Pianotech@Ptg. Org" <PIANOTECH@PTG.ORG><BR>Received: 09/14/2006 8:09:38 PM<BR>Subject: Alcohol and hard hammers<BR><BR> <DIV align=left><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></DIV></BODY></HTML>