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<DIV><FONT size=3> Ric</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> A well reasoned & dispassioante post I
wholeheartedly agree with. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> I keep saying it ,but if a hammer that=
requires only a little stiffening up, speaking from starting on the soft
side, doesn't require thick but only <U>very thin</U> dilutions o=
f
nitro cellulose lacquer to coat the fibers & stiffen the hammer. This mi=
ld
treatment does not render the fibers unresielent nor ruined but regulat=
es
the resilience of the fiber</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> The <STRONG>truly soft</STRONG> =
hammer requires denser & multiple lacquer solutions. If =
it
takes this technique to get it speak then the felt is poor or
pressed wrong or both. & I'll let you'all draw your own conclusions=
on
that one. However they can sound great...... for a while & I
beleive in the end, possibly harder to manage. That being said I've worked o=
n
hammers like this that were quite mangeable.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Ray at Ronsen pointed out the one bra=
nd of
felt has good tensioning qualities but not much compression. A great felt ha=
s
both. SO the lacquer is adding an artificial component of compression.....,I=
MO
that is.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Also in this only a little bit soft case, straigh=
t
acetone washed into the hammer can have a mild stiffening affect by shrinkag=
e
& leaves no residue. Certainly a harmless first step . A Rule of th=
umb
in voicing is always use the least innocuos step first & do test
notes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3> Dale Erwin</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=
=2>Hi
Andre<BR><BR>My own choice is cellulose lacquer. Its one of the softest, a=
nd
<BR>springiest lacquers available. It always struck me that if one first w=
as
<BR>too use lacquer, then a lacquer with its own kind of resiliency was a
<BR>sensible choice. Dries fast, results show themselves in about an hour
<BR>and cures completely in a day or two (at least in the amounts used in
<BR>hammer doping).<BR><BR>That said.. Stan wood has observed that lacquer=
s
and other hardening <BR>agents tend to coat the fibers of hammer felt maki=
ng
them brittle and <BR>essentially destroying their resilient capabilities. =
So a
chemical that <BR>simply causes the fibers to tension up a
bit...(shrinking) without any <BR>other affect would perhaps be the
ideal. Haven't tried any such thing <BR>yet... shying from chemicals=
as
I do, thou I have bumped into a bit of <BR>reading on the subject.<BR><BR>=
As
for colloduium .... grin... you are wrong about its primary benefit <BR>An=
dre
! In reality that is its ability to make all future use of mind
<BR>expanding drugs totally redundant !! :)<BR><BR>Oh.... and Terry... yep=
..
some folks are out there hardening Yamaha <BR>hammers. Usually becau=
se
they have been devastated by softening agents, <BR>over steamed, or just p=
lain
needled to death. Strikes me that in spite <BR>of all the ingenious
alternative methods our American allies have for <BR>doing things
differently... too many over there have forgotten, put <BR>aside, or other=
wise
ignored developing and maintaining needling skills. <BR>No reflectio=
n on
those who can mind you. One striking difference between <BR>voicing proble=
ms
one runs into here in Europe visa vi those in America <BR>(based on person=
al
experience) is that in America you find tons of cases <BR>of hammers maule=
d
one way or the other by the uninitiated tech. Where as <BR>in Europe... th=
e
vast majority of voicing problems have their basis <BR>simply from a lack =
of
voicing maintenance done.<BR><BR>Cheers<BR>RicB<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></D=
IV>
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