<html> Mind if I chime in? Steam will soften Yamaha hammers just fine. The problem is with over application at the tip of the hammer.  Just as with needling, avoiding the very crown is important. When you have a set of hard pressed hammers which is not responding to needling, then you need to change something about how you work on them.  Although you may never stick the needles in directly on the tip of the hammer, you should most definitely needle very close to the tip of the hammer.  Here is the basic process. First, shape the hammer nicely, remove all string marks (guess how many times technicians have told me that they couldn't get results needling hard hammers, but they didn't file the hammers first!) Next, needle the shoulders if needed.  You can feel shoulders which need needling - they feel like hard rubber with no give to them.  If you can press 3 needles into the shoulders easily, don't bother doing any more.  Hard pressed hammers should be softened a lot in the 9:00 and 3:00 areas, up to maybe 10:00 ~ 2:00 or a little farther up.  From 10:00 / 2:00 up to 11:30 / 12:30 should be softened some also, but not too deeply or aggressively.  Save this for later.  From 11:30 ~ 12:30 (the top of the hammer), don't pre-needle at all.  If you have needled the shoulders a lot, lightly re-shape / smooth the hammers again before proceeding.  Make sure the hammer tops are absolutely level by lifting them to the strike point with a stick under the shanks, then put a straightedge on top and refine the tips of the hammers. After shaping and shoulder needling, level strings / fit hammers, then tune the piano. For a warm sound in the center of the piano, use a single needle maybe 3 or 4mm long and stitch 6 to 8 times in a line across the face of the hammer, just beyond the slight string marks created during the tuning.  This may cause a ridge to form across the hammer where you have softened the felt.  Lightly sand this ridge off with a paddle with fine paper (600 or higher) on it, or tap it down smooth with the back side of the voicing tool. Re-test the tone.  If there is not enough change, try the same area slightly deeper, then if needed try closer to the tip (just on the ends of the slight string marks) only going 2mm deep or so.  Once you find what works on a particular hammer, do the same thing to some more sample hammers.  When you feel secure, do an entire section with the same process, then refine the differences between notes (match them to your first target / test notes). You will find that this needling has different effects on the front and back side.  For bringing a harsh piano down overall, I needle both sides.  To reduce harshness and distortion on Forte playing, I concentrate on the front (player) side of the hammer.  To create a very warm pianissimo sound I come very close to the strike point on the back side of the hammer. This type of hammer voicing is a high maintenance thing, but not nearly as much as if you try to needle at the strike point. Shallow needling at the strike point gives a quick softening that brightens right back up.  Deeper needling just off the strike point creates a resilient spring under the tip of the hammer that does not brighten up as quickly. One of the goals of this type of hammer is to give a wide tone color range to the pianist.  A hammer which is resilient and warm sounding when played soft but has bite, brightness and power when played hard is a real gift to the pianist.  The effect can be also achieved with soft hammers and lacquer followed by needling on and around the strike point.  By the way, I find that when soft hammers are built up to have a tone range, they also brighten up with use.  If you give the pianist a good tone range, you will need to maintain the voicing a lot. The easiest hammer to maintain is one which does not have much tonal range.  If the relative brightness does not change much with dynamic changes, the pianist is more limited in expressive range, but the hammers will be more reliably voiced.  If this is your goal, then heavy steaming, or deep needling the tip, of the hard pressed hammers will work.  Just do so with the knowledge that you are sacrificing tonal range for the reliability. Don Mannino RPT At 12:29 PM 11/26/00 -0500, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><<"I also remembr a mail here on this list saying that Japanese technicians forbid steaming.">> Martin;  Aren't these the same "Japanese technicians" who created these, sometimes, bricklike hammers to begin with?  Any technique that has been, or will be, devised can be applied improperly and/or used in the wrong circumstances. To categorically reject 'any' technique for 'any' use is both indefensible and logically contraindicated.  Now....... since I seem to be "forbidding" 'categorical rejection' "categorically", I need to say that any "categorical" rejection, including this one, should be taken with a grain of salt. :-) Jim Bryant (FL) </blockquote></html>