<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16441" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Wayne,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hmm.  Is this a grand or an upright?  What are the accoustics in the room like?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I hope something here helps.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Barbara Richmond, RPT</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>living a protected life near Peoria, IL   </FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=wayne.w@musicstop.com href="mailto:wayne.w@musicstop.com">Wayne Walker</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 11, 2007 2:34 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Steam treating hard hammers</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=878032719-11062007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>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.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=878032719-11062007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=878032719-11062007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>Wayne</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=878032719-11062007><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=878032719-11062007> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>Wayne Walker</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>Piano Tuner / Technician</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT></DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>Musicstop Acoustic Piano Service</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>264 Herring Cove Road</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>Halifax, NS, Canada</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>B3P 1M1</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>902-221-1540</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><STRONG>902-496-0041 Fax</STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><STRONG><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><A href="http://www.musicstop.com/">www.musicstop.com</A></FONT></STRONG></DIV></DIV></SPAN></DIV><BR> <HR> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.<BR>It has removed 2398 spam emails to date.<BR>Paying users do not have this message in their emails.<BR>Try <A href="http://www.spamfighter.com/len">SPAMfighter</A> for free now!<BR><BR> <P><FONT size=2>No virus found in this outgoing message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.13/843 - Release Date: 6/10/2007 1:39 PM<BR></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>