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All needling is not destructive. You may want my article which I'll provide if you PM me with your email and general location. Arthroscopic voicing gets to the zone of effectiveness without passing through the zone of uselessness. It may only take a couple of pokes in the right place.

The suggestions on re-disolve that already have been mentioned are another valid approach as well.

Lacquer continues to cure for a long time. This is noticeable in refinishing after lacquer is sprayed. It can be rubbed out to a nice sheen and then later one can see dimples where the wood grain has telegraphed to the surface from further curing that has taken place.

In my experience, hard acrylic (not keytop material) dissolved in acetone is faster and more controllable and doesn't do the perpetual hardening thing that lacquer does.

You should be working with your rebuilder. It's not unusual for your new hammers to need several voicing sessions before they become stable.

You could try this. Purchase some acetone solvent from a paint store. Purchase a small syringe pipette that is safe for use with aromatic solvents. Get some paper towels. Get some aromatic resistant gloves. Make a list of the offending hammers. Remove the action onto a stable support like a table with towels or foldable plastic saw horses. Raise the offending hammers clear up to vertical. Place a magazine on the back checks/whippens. Drop the offending hammers back down from vertical. Put on the gloves. Fill the syringe with acetone and wet the hammer crown with the acetone. Wait 10 minutes. Wet them again and place paper towel over the crowns and squeeze the towel against the hammer crowns with your fingers. Let dry for about four hours and then remove all the stuff from the action and test out how it sounds. You will need to open a window or door to clear the fumes. Don't sit over the thing inhaling them.

If this didn't help enough, repeat the above but when you go to rewet use enough acetone that it completely fills the hammer before you squeeze them. Always wet from the crown.

Greetings,
Since aural phenomena are impossible to diagnosis without hearing, we are just throwing out possible causes, so I offer a third, alternative, perspective.....I think you got over-juiced. You now have rocks with some tufted felt over them. They can be kept nicely only with constant voicing. Continual shallow needling on the crown is often the way stage pianos are maintained, but they get new hammers more often, because of that. What you may be doing is trying to just keep something soft on the outer surface of your solidified hammer.

I don't grasp why it would take two years for a hammer to "stabilize". I don't see that. A too-soft Steinway hammer will never produce the full power of one with a firmer foundation, but it will continue to brighten, nearly forever, so there is no point of "stability". Properly hardened Steinway hammers will, in my experience, develop the brilliance desired after around 30-40 hours of play. By then, surface compaction will have done most of its effect and voicing at the tunings is usually sufficient for non-performance instruments. If the hammer was over-juiced to begin with, you will be fighting harshness forever

Also, a heavily lacquered hammer will get harder for several months, but the difference between month two and month three is so small that it would be hard to notice. This piano seems to ping after two hours of play, which suggests to me that the hammers are rocks and any shallow voicing will be very short lived. Of course, there are other things to be wary of, ie un-mated hammers and poor termination, both of which will begin pinging sounds when a hammer gets harder. If the spacing is off enough, hammer edges can cause weird noises on impact.

Two things I would suggest have already been suggested, soak the hammers in acetone to remove some of the hardening agent, and deeper, more effective needling. Otherwise, I would suggest a move to the Ronsen Weickert hammers, if your tech knows what they need in needle work.

Agreed. It’s a problem of the distance separating me from the rebuilder.

To calm down pings that are associated with the strike point I like to use a small brass wire brush.
I like to reserve poking holes in the felt until less intrusive techniques fail to get desired result.

Does this mean that you will be doing all of the maintenance on the piano yourself?

Do you find that using a brass wire brush on the strike point has any lasting effect on pinginess? I wouldn’t think you would, unless hardener was applied to the strike point merely as a surface glaze rather than with any significant penetration. But I’ll give it a try. Thanks for replying.

Lacquering them up tends to destroy that resilient springiness.
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