[CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers

[Alan McCoy]

Hi Paul,

One thing that disturbs me about these hammers, at least on the pianos I
have put them on, is that they never give me the "clang" that I want at a
fff dynamic level. They are nicely made, don't require much prep, and give a
warm, dark tone quality, but in my experience with a fff blow all you get is
more volume without as much change in the partial mix as I want. I have
ended up juicing every set. If I could get a set of S&S hammers that were
completely unaltered at the factory (long uncoved, unarced tails), I would
use Steinway hammers. I happen to like the sound I can get using lacquer, so
I will  go back to using Ronsen Bacon hammers with lacquer. Having said this
though, so as not to be misunderstood, I do not like a bright piano sound
that you get from hard hammers. The only time I want clang is at the highest
dynamic levels, so the pianist has to work to get it, as opposed to those
pianos that are pingy from the getgo at a pp level.

FWIW.

Alan


-- Alan McCoy, RPT
Eastern Washington University
amccoy at mail.ewu.edu
509-359-4627
509-999-9512


> From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
> Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
> Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:01:13 -0500
> To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Subject: [CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers
> 
> Hi gang,
> 
> This summer I'm rebuilding the action on our 1956 Baldwin D using Renner
> shanks/flanges and wippens.  I'm also, per your previous reccommendations,
> trying Ronsen-Wurzen hammers for the first time.  I have some time before
> summer arrives to "prep" the parts, weigh off the shanks, check pinning,
> etc.  My question is; What sort of pre-voicing should be done with these
> hammers?  Do they require pre-filing, juicing, needling etc.?  They're
> already bored, tapered and tails shaped nicely.
> 
> Thanks for any input!
> 
> Paul T. Williams RPT
> Univ. of Nebraska