Re: Tack Piano

[jpw77@together.net]

Stick thumbtacks in your piano's hammers and you'll be honky-tonking your 
way to a 
completely ruined set of hammers when you decide to take them out. Piano 
hammers are 
made of tightly compressed layered felt that's bent around a wood molding, 
so at the strike 
point the layers are very tightly .packed. Anything that breaks through 
the felt will change the 
tone the hammers achieve. Voicing is done by careful insertion of fine 
needles around and on 
the strike point, usually not very deep. A tack will instantly destroy the 
hammer, and 
replacement is not cheap. Only recommended for pianos with hammers deemed 
dead 
already from wear and age.
There are kits available for upright pianos that consist of a rod with 88 
cloth strips hanging 
from it. The strips have metal tabs in them and can be lowered between the 
hammers and the 
strings. The hammer hits the cloth, the metal hits the string, and the 
effect is essentially the 
same as the thumbtack  method. 

Jon Williams