[CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers

[Paul T Williams]

This hall is pretty good too and I think it seats around 700, but not 
positive....  Was your D a Baldwin or Steinway?

Paul




"Porritt, David" <dporritt at mail.smu.edu> 
Sent by: caut-bounces at ptg.org
04/16/2008 01:04 PM
Please respond to
College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>


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"College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
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Subject
Re: [CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers






I've put these on a D in a 500 seat recital hall and have to voice them
down a couple times a year.  Acoustically it's a pretty nice hall
though.

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:36 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers

I've put a number of sets of Ronsen Wurtzen hammers on and I like them
for our practice rooms but I've had an experience similar to Alan's.
Without lacquer they seem to be missing something at all volumes, even
for a practice room. At the minimum I'll soak them from the mid-tenor on
up and often soak the whole set. You have to needle them back down after
doing this of course but they then have a good strong core for a wider
dynamic range. They sound nice after doing this plus I've found that if
hammers are voiced too soft the kids just pound harder to get tone out
of the piano. From my experience I can't imagine using these hammers
"straight out of the box". That being said, I still like them a lot
though I wouldn't put them on a performance piano.

Eric

Eric Wolfley, RPT
Director of Piano Services
College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Alan McCoy
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:41 PM
To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Ronsen-Wurzen hammers

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





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