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<DIV><<I had quite a bit of experience trying out steaming methods a few
years <BR>back and arrived finally at the conclusion that steaming was not an
<BR>option. >></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> Yet just last week at a
chapter technical, we had Roger Jolly, chief of design (or similar title) for
Samick (I know, I know, but he also worked for Kawai in an upper level capacity)
claim that steaming is a viable option and that he was one of the
original advocates of the procedure. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> A few years ago I asked this
list if people used steaming primarily for softening or shrinking, and thus
hardening hammers (since wool shrinks after being wet), and never got a
satisfactory answer. Some techs claim they prefer to steam worn
hammers rather than file them. Well, that's OK if the grooves are quite
shallow. It does fluff them up a bit, and loosens the crown, but doesn't
restore a firm, rounded surface. Nobody seemed to know if the felt
actually loosened up or if it shrank and hardened again after all the moisture
evaporated. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><<One thing I noticed is that hammers seemed clearly to wear out
<BR>faster... deeper grooves appeared quite quickly in relation to other
<BR>approaches. Nor did I get the feeling that the voicing was
stable. >></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> Seems to me that no voicing
procedure is very stable, unless the method is quite drastic.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">It </FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">lasts maybe
as long as the tuning. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> <BR>Often I could get a very very pleasing sound immediately, only to
find <BR>the work deteriorate some few weeks later. If you have hammers that are
<BR>rocks and simply can not be needled acceptably... I'd advise changing
<BR>rather then [than] steaming or soaking.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">Yes, but steaming or soaking can be done in less
than an hour, whereas installing</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">a complete set of hammers is quite another
matter. Usually the customer is not willing</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">to pay for new hammers. Unless you work for
that 1% of piano owners who are rich and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">have large grands, and even then they won't
spring for new hammers unless they're semi-</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">professional or have a child who's a piano
major. Most people have inexpensive pianos </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">you're obliged to work with the hammers already
on the piano. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> </FONT><BR><BR>Voicing by needles
that has a long lasting affect [effect]is in my experience <BR>contingent upon
how well you needle up the shoulders... how much of a <BR>cushion you create as
it were. You want to bring up as much an elastic <BR>effect to the sound
as you can without affecting the attack sound much <BR>first... some folks refer
to this as building up the power of the <BR>hammer. Once you have a nice
... shall we say... <<boingy>> elasticity <BR>to the sound, then
addressing the attack sound can be done to take care <BR>of a pianists comments
that go along the lines of brightness, glassy... <BR>etc. You will find
that with a good cushion, attack voicing will be <BR>very
stable.<BR><BR> Cheers<BR>RicB</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> Yet Mr. Jolly says he uses
just one #1 needle (on new Renner blues) which he drives all the way in until it
touches the molding. I countered that many hammers are too dense to allow
a needle to go all the way in to the molding. He said, "Oh, sure it
will." But I know this is not the case. I've tried it many
times. Oh, you could pound it in, maybe and break the needle and/or the
shank. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"></FONT><BR><BR>I have been tuning a piano twice a
year for about 3 years. About<BR> once a year my customer
complains that the piano is too bright, so I<BR> voice it down
and make it a little more mellow than he likes because<BR> he
say it will be bright again in about 6 months. He wants
something<BR> more permanent. I hate to change these hammers
because they still<BR> look good. What's the consensus on
steaming? Does it last?<BR><BR> Al Guecia<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> It lasts for a while.
Depends on how heavily the piano is played, how humid or dry the climate is,
etc. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> It's annoying, confusing,
frustrating how sketchy the whole subject of voicing still is, after all these
seminars, articles, etc.: "Y</FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">es, you
can use Vise Grips, carefully, judiciously, on the sides of the hammer."
"</FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">No, you can't use Vise Grips; they'll
"destroy" the felt." </FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">(Y</FONT><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">et the commercially available "voicing pliers" aren't much
different.) "</FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">Steaming is the way to
go." "S</FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">teaming has no lasting
effect." "S</FONT><FONT face="Arial Narrow">oaking with alcohol is the
only effective way to soften hammers." "D</FONT><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">on't soak the hammers with anything." Yamaha
says not to voice on the strike point. At Steinway, they rountinely
voice the strike point. "File hammers from the shoulders working up
toward the crown." "No, file hammers from one side working all the way
around the crown to the other side." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">And so on, back and forth, never anything for
sure. We're left to just experiment on customers' or our own pianos,
stabbing in the dark. For every FAQ about voicing, there are at least 5
answers, none of them really agreeing -- it always depends on the set of hammers
at hand. It's almost as bad as the supposed cures for hiccups: "Have
someone unexpectedly scare you." "No, put a bag over your head and count
to 50." "No, take a teaspoonful of sugar." "No, take ten deep
breaths."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> I dread voicing. It's
always a crapshoot. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> --David Nereson,
RPT</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>