Voicing

I looked at a Steinway L today circa 1975 with teflon bushings. Previous owner was a church for 30 years. Amazingly little to no rust considering it was in a North Carolina church. Anyway I was just evaluating the piano for the client. Some hammer filing had been done in the past but many of the hammers now have mild flat spots across the crown. It looked to me that someone may have used a dremel on all the bass hammers because of the amount of felt that had been removed in the shoulders . I believe the shape shown in the Steinway manual is more of a pear shaped hammer felt. These hammers had a severe somewhat diagonal cut . In addition the piano was overly bright. What would be the best solution for reshaping the bass hammers to put a good strike point back on them and would rounding off the strike points and perhaps ironing the felt help reduce brightness or are we looking at a lot of needle work ?


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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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Excellent question, Problem is, technophobic as I am above all, many are expecting dozen by a dozen SG4 pixel photos to consider your plight, and you already finished the gig without smartphone photos. Teflon? Weird hammer filing? From that, I recommend estimate for extensive and complete action job, and possible touchweight and analysis correction recommendation, to boot. How quiet is the damper rack and whippens? How big the church? What denomination? Any available circumstantial donors? Lots to consider, beyond that mentioned. Probably can't afford it right now, I assume. ------------------------------------------- Benjamin Sloane Cincinnati OH 513-257-8480 -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 05-31-2013 21:22 From: James Kelly Subject: Steinway Bass Hammer Shaping I looked at a Steinway L today circa 1975 with teflon bushings. Previous owner was a church for 30 years. Amazingly little to no rust considering it was in a North Carolina church. Anyway I was just evaluating the piano for the client. Some hammer filing had been done in the past but many of the hammers now have mild flat spots across the crown. It looked to me that someone may have used a dremel on all the bass hammers because of the amount of felt that had been removed in the shoulders . I believe the shape shown in the Steinway manual is more of a pear shaped hammer felt. These hammers had a severe somewhat diagonal cut . In addition the piano was overly bright. What would be the best solution for reshaping the bass hammers to put a good strike point back on them and would rounding off the strike points and perhaps ironing the felt help reduce brightness or are we looking at a lot of needle work ? ------------------------------------------- James Kelly Pawleys Island SC 843-325-4357 -------------------------------------------

Just reread. My fault. Scratch church considerations. ------------------------------------------- Benjamin Sloane Cincinnati OH 513-257-8480 -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 05-31-2013 21:22 From: James Kelly Subject: Steinway Bass Hammer Shaping I looked at a Steinway L today circa 1975 with teflon bushings. Previous owner was a church for 30 years. Amazingly little to no rust considering it was in a North Carolina church. Anyway I was just evaluating the piano for the client. Some hammer filing had been done in the past but many of the hammers now have mild flat spots across the crown. It looked to me that someone may have used a dremel on all the bass hammers because of the amount of felt that had been removed in the shoulders . I believe the shape shown in the Steinway manual is more of a pear shaped hammer felt. These hammers had a severe somewhat diagonal cut . In addition the piano was overly bright. What would be the best solution for reshaping the bass hammers to put a good strike point back on them and would rounding off the strike points and perhaps ironing the felt help reduce brightness or are we looking at a lot of needle work ? ------------------------------------------- James Kelly Pawleys Island SC 843-325-4357 -------------------------------------------

Not sure when I will go back. I had my IPAD and should have taken some pics of the hammers.
I think the owner already knows that the top action needs to get re-done.  My guess is that the hammer thing was done at the church to "lighten" the action and I am also thinking it
was done with a dremel or some other rotary tool. Someone in my  area has destroyed several piano actions using a power assisted tool. I do all my hammer reshaping with paddles of different grits. My view of dremels and hammers is the two do not mix. Also if you don't know
how to do the job don't use a customers piano as your test bench.

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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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The pointy bass hammers, though a butcher job, tend to have less brassy extraneous noise than too-flat hammers, in my experience.  Usually some shallow needling in the strike area will do a lot of good, though of course it's temporary.  More problematic is if so much felt was removed that the hammers are too light.  Then you can not get a good full tone.

My 2 cents is to do what you can with the hammers now with quick shaping and needling and prepare a careful quote for top action rebuilding.

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Lawrence Becker
Dayton KY
513-257-1477
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-04-2013 22:18
From: James Kelly
Subject: Steinway Bass Hammer Shaping

Not sure when I will go back. I had my IPAD and should have taken some pics of the hammers.
I think the owner already knows that the top action needs to get re-done.  My guess is that the hammer thing was done at the church to "lighten" the action and I am also thinking it
was done with a dremel or some other rotary tool. Someone in my  area has destroyed several piano actions using a power assisted tool. I do all my hammer reshaping with paddles of different grits. My view of dremels and hammers is the two do not mix. Also if you don't know
how to do the job don't use a customers piano as your test bench.

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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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