The manufacturing improvement is that they are prelacquering the hammers out of the factory. I won't use them because of that and I think it's covering for bad felt or poor pressing practices or both. Ronsen Bacon or Ronsen Wurzen will suit your needs the best. The Bacon felt might need a slight bit of lacquering but not stronger than 8:1 and usually only in the treble, depending on the solids content of the lacquer and you goals. The Wurzen won't need anything but a fine polishing with up to 1000 grit paper and sometimes they will need to be voiced down slightly. Generally I'm finding that the Bacon are good for the smaller pianos or those pianos with slightly "looser" boards. The Wurzen work well for B's and D's or boards that are stiffer or heavier (they do vary). David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of johnsond Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:31 AM To: College and University Technicians Subject: [CAUT] The "new" S&S Hammers. Anyone care to share your experiences with the new S&S Hammers from this summer? They come with a note to us Technicians...... ________ "Due to a process improvement in the manufacturing...... you may notice a slightly harder hammer. With this in mind we would suggest that you do not juice these hammers before testing in the piano. Juicing these hammers before installation and pre-testing may result in a brighter than anticipated tone. " ________ OK- Actually the hammers looked good and shaped up just fine. I did not put one drop of lacquer or any other hardener on these hammers except for 4 notes in the high treble. The piano has been back in service now for a couple months. They are bright indeed!! Just this morning the faculty pianist actually told me that now he "hates" this piano. I am trying keep him patient and working with them, but there is only so much needling I can do. I can't take the piano out of service to wash them with thinner until maybe Christmas break. The worst part is that it starts to make me look bad when the player is beginning to wish he had the old worn hammers back...... @#$! I'm sorry, but we are not paid enough to take that kind of responsibility for materials. So.... Anyone else have a better experience? Maybe it's just this set- thanks, Dennis Johnson St. Olaf College
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