Hi, Mark
I usually use vodka in the string grooves of neglected extremely bright pianos with worn hammers. When I come to tune a piano like this, and hear the tin and rock-hard brightness I'll speak with the owner (some LIKE it!!) and offer to treat it with alcohol. Then I evaluate which sections I want to change, sometimes marking the keys with a chalk line. I first treat special offenders with a dose between 11 and 1 on the clock face, and then drip a few drops into the string grooves of the sections I've marked. I also sometimes knead the wet strike area with a fingernail. On an upright, i'll drop the vodka in with my right hand and my left will be at the bottom of the string grooves to keep the alcohol from running off. I kind of massage it in.
When I treat the bass, I like to leave it awhile before playing down there. I don't like the idea of whacking liquid into a wound string. For the rest of the piano, there is an immediate result (certainly enough to charm the customer), but it changes a little over an hour or two.
After applying the vodka, I start tuning. Middle section first, of course. By the time I'm into octave 5 and 6, I'll be able to tell if a note or three need more, and I'll given them another shot. By the end of the tuning, the results seem fairly stable, and I go over the voicing and even it up with needling. I use a short needle, just one.
The only time I'd use vodka on a performance grand would be using just one or two drops on an octave 7 hammer which is as bright as broken glass and sticks out more than the rest. It will take the edge off just a hair, making it equal to the other notes while leaving plenty of attack and sizzle. And I wouldn't repeat it -- I'd just do it once. Once the voicing is even and in the right range up there, it tends to stay even. I like being able to take down extreme brightness on such small hammers, usually very hard from lacquer, without having to needle or file the very thin felt. It's easily harmed, and needling and filing up there doesn't seem to be very effective.
Using vodka on a church 7' Yamaha beat to smithereens over and over again by a "gospel" pianist, when I used a lot of it several times over, I found out that it is reversible by more hard playing -- until it isn't. I also found the hammer narrowing to be alarming. You get to a certain point, soaking it deep in, and the internal structure of the hammer gets compromised, and rebuilding it (dripping lacquer into the sides, mostly) seems difficult and the results not very appealing. This is probably why Yamaha at one point said that steaming hammers will void their warranty on them.
It's like so many of the techniques we use -- treated with respect, vodka can really do a job for you. Overdone, it can be your worst enemy. Well, my opinion, anyway.
It was a good day when I realized I could get results from vodka very similar to steaming. I call it "steam in a bottle." No kettle or iron to carry, no searching for an outlet, no steam burns, just a two-ounce plastic dropper bottle in a ziploc bag living in my kit.
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Susan Kline
Philomath, Oregon
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-01-2017 15:42
From: Mark Potter
Subject: Steam Voicing
Susan -
In a typical application, how long do you have to wait for the 'vodka' to dry before reliably ascertaining the effects, and possibly moving to filing and needling?
Mark Potter
West Jefferson, OH