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Shackleford Pianos Cheshire |
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Voicing is the process where the density of the hammer is adjusted to change the tone of your piano.
The tone of your piano should be pleasing to the ear and allow you to clearly project your music and emotions. If your piano sounds too "tinny" or too dull, or some notes are louder or softer than others, then it is time to have your pianos hammers adjusted. This is termed voicing and, when done properly, tailors the tone of your piano to perfectly suit you. |
| After checking the touch response of the piano the voicing process begins with perfectly aligning the hammers to the strings and then reshaping and/or refacing the hammer. This removes from the hammer felt the deep grooves made when the hammer comes into contact with the strings, and returns the hammer to their correct shape (see picture, right). A clean, smooth hammer face is essential for correct voicing. In fact, the hammer is responsible for up to 60% of a piano's tone colour. |
 These hammers are badly indented which will affect the tonal quality of the piano
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 You can see in this picture the hammer on the bottom is badly dented at it's striking point, leaving it shaped like a letter D, a good piano hammer should look like the hammer at the top of the picture.
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 The way to remove the string indentations and return the hammer to it's correct shape, is by correctly reshaping the hammer - this is where dead layers of the hammers felt are removed.
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the hammer shape and face have been correctly adjusted the hammer felt is then needled. This adjusts the
hammer's density and helps to create a consistent tone across the
keyboard. How the hammer is adjusted can be tailored to suit you, we can dramatically change the tone of any piano, talk to us today about making your piano perfect. |
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| A final tip - please don't try to do this yourself, having to install new piano hammers due to poorly performed voicing procedures costs far more than getting a properly trained professional in to do the work! |
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Shackleford Pianos Cheshire |