<HTML>Andre, Greetings from not-so-sunny California!   Thank you for your very articulate post on voicing related issues. &nbsp= ;There are many voicing problems that can surface for technicians in almost = any piano regardless of price or pedigree.  You have obviously thought = long and hard about this, and have years of experience behind you to base yo= ur opinions on. I am going to save this in my pocket PC to share with certain really fin= icky customers. Thanks again, Dave Stahl In a message dated 2/19/04 2:40:41 PM Pacific Standard Time, antares@eur= onet.nl writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Hello Mr. Stéphane Hanria= t, This could be a very tricky situation, depending on the skills of your technician. Deep needling in the higher section of the shoulders can be helped with 'banging' the hammers against a cheek block or voicing block, which then may hardens/stiffen the crown area. You could compare this with playing rather loud for some time, which always makes the the hammers louder, but in a natural way. If these are mellow hammers to begin with, you may be in trouble. Power can be restored (maybe) by making a very good concert regulation, followed by 'battery voicing'. If the cushion section however has been made too weak, a hammer replacement is inevitable, and  a very expensive option. Of course the best hammers for this kind of instrument are a replacement of the original Kawai hammers. It is very well possible that the section you described (octave 5 to 6) is a problem area in your grand piano. Voicing is considered the most difficult issue in the piano industry. A technician, employed by a piano factory, usually has earned this honorable position after having proved to be a trusted and experienced professional over a long time. From my own experience as a concert technician, I know however that it is at the same time very well possible for any very gifted/talented technician to get into a hazardous situation where he/she has to fight with voicing problems, caused by the instrument. Not one instrument in this world is 100 % perfect, and when a pianist points out a specific irregularity we assume that a real pro will solve it. This is not always the case as the 'irregularity' may be caused by technical problems, the technician can not solve. We as technicians, and especially voicing technicians, are, unfortunately, often confronted with technical problems we can not really solve. If we, as voicing techs, can not solve a real structural problem (caused for instance by the sound board or another basic piano structure), we will try to mask it by taking away energy, so that the problem will not bother the pianist. Some problems are huge and others are not, and some pianists can live with a 'certain irregularity' but others go crazy about it. A truly gifted and experienced technician can usually solve both the problem of the instrument and thereby the problem of the pianist. There are however situations where the instrument, and especially a brand new instrument, kind of disappoints the pianist after it has been brought into his/her house, or studio. We are very familiar with this and try whatever we can to please the pianist, and at the same time try to prevent a possible escalation of this difficult situation. Usually it does not come this far, but sometimes serious action is inevitable. A hammer change is a serious action and can solve the problem. On the other hand, if your instrument has a serious problem in the octave you described, the problem will come back, even with new hammers. I am a voicing technician and I am strongly opposed to adding hammer dope/hardener in the hammer area you described. It will certainly stiffen the wool fibers and harden the sound, but this does not automatically mean that the hammers have then been brought back to normal' because the character of the doped hammers is definitely and irreversibly different. Filing these hammers also is an unhealthy thing to do because taking off felt again changes the nature and character of the hammers and changes the weight, because taking off just 1 gram off the hammer reduces the key weight by approximately 5 grams (!) Wool fibers that have been filed away, will never come back. In order to solve this problem you must first have absolute confidence in your technician, and ensure yourself of total dedication by the firm/business where you bought your instrument.</BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>