<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; ">I’ve barely done any voicing at all, but I’ve read quite a lot about it, so I’m going to take a stab at it. This is a good little pop quiz for me, so any feedback would be great.<div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Significant or not?</i><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Yes. </span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">So you took a blade and made a slice from the strike point to the core? It looks like there’s a lot more tension in the felt on the right because it pulled apart so much further; this would make it a harder hammer, less spring and give than the one on the left.</span></i></div><div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>What do these likely sound like? </i></div><div>Left - probably round, full, well-balanced tone, more mellow than the one on the right</div><div>Right - probably brighter, typical of a hammer found on asian pianos</div><div><br></div><div><i>How will they voice? </i></div><div>Left - easier to penetrate, probably won’t take as much to tame</div><div>Right - harder to penetrate, will be hard to keep toned down (that is, if that’s what you’re going for)</div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>Is it heat or the fibers themselves that cause this?  </i></div><div>I don’t know. Maybe both? If you’re talking about whether the heat causes differences in hardness/density(?) and voicing, then yes from everything I’ve ever heard.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Would these hammers react the same way if they had undergone the same amount of heat treatment during pressing?<br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">Doesn’t it depend on how the slab of felt is formed to start with (before being pressed around the core)?</span></i></div><div><i><br></i>Daniel Carlton</div></div></div></span></div><div style="position:fixed"></div> </div></body></html>