Hammer voicing with alcohol/water mix

[John Tootle]

Hi All,

I had my RPT voice about a half dozen hammers on my piano 5 or 6 months
ago - which he did by poking little holes in them. Apparently several of
them have hardened since then, making them not only produce a brighter tone
than all the others but also what I call a clanking sound when they strike
the string. I have been told that I should be able to soften the hammers by
putting 2 or 3 drops of a mixture of 50% water / 50% rubbing alcohol on
them.

My question: Should I proceed with the process or is this bad advice?
Don't worry about the financial impact on my RPT, I'll have him over for a
full tuning before too many more months roll by.

Best regards,
John

[pTooner]

John Tootle wrote:

Well, John, speaking as a tuner, I would encourage you to proceed. I am sure
your tuner will be happy at the additional income this will create for him as he
tries to straighten out the mess you will undoubtedly make. It is very likely
that he will get to do a complete hammer replacement! ;-))

Gerry

[Almida]

It sounds like you care about your piano. If you do, my advice would be to
have a pro do this job.

Mitch

[l...@epix.net]

In article <
73ejst$ogp$1...@camel15.mindspring.com>,
"John Tootle" <johnt...@flexcorp.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
John, hammer voicing is for a pro. In fact, I'd say
most tuners with less than 10 years experience
probably shouldn't do it on any piano worth more
than $10,000. There are many factors that affect
tone. These should be examined before voicing:

--Is is really in good tune?
(this is the biggest "voicing" factor. there's
nothing wrong with having a second tuner come
and check the work of the first)
--How dry/damp is the room?
--How clean/level are the strings?
(small rust spots, little kinks, and muddy
termination can cause false beats that sometimes
create a nasel sound that is mistaken for
"bright")
--What kind of mood are you in?
(seriously, this last one counts. When I'm
exhausted at the end of the day my piano sounds too
"bright." Suddenly the next morning when I wake
up fresh, it sounds beautiful again!)

--The second-to-last thing you should have done
is needling.
--The very last thing you should do is use the
alcohol/water, which to my knowledge is a last
resort when brand new, rock-hard hammers
(such as Renner or Able) keep breaking voicing
needles.

FWIW,
George

"Beware: empirical advice"

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[tado...@swbell.net]

George,

First of all thanks to you, pTooner and the other person who responded
(Almida I believe). I will definitely leave this to my RPT who will be
at my house on December 9th to do the job. I'm not sure if he has 10
years experience or not, but after he voiced the hammers in the problem
octave earlier this year, they sounded great for a while. Then some but
not all of them reverted back to 'clanking mode'.

The piano is a completely restored 7' Chickering grand that was played
hardly at all (after restoration) before I bought it. It is likely that
many of the hammers are essentially new. Hopefully they will stabilize
at some point and won't require repeated voicing.

BTW I'm sending this from my inlaws' computer in St. Louis so I have no
idea who the sender will appear to be. But thanks again to all and
happy turkey day.

John Tootle

George l...@epix.net wrote