[CAUT] Abel aelect Vs. Rosner-Wurtzen

[David Love]

It depends on the piano and what the customer wants.  I've changed many sets
of Abel and Renner hammers off older Steinways where no amount of needling
was going to achieve the tone that the customer wanted and put on Bacon Felt
hammers that were darn near perfect after some shaping and polishing.  So my
conclusion and experience is considerably different than yours and I
encourage people to sample different types of hammers and see for
themselves.  I think they'll find that the one hammer suits all is what's
"overdriven" here.  

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
Richard Brekne
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 12:07 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Abel aelect Vs. Rosner-Wurtzen

Hi

I think really that your post goes to show that just about any reasonbly 
made hammer can work quite well in just about any piano.  I'm coming 
more and more to the conclusion that very much of the to do about 
differerent hammer types is quite overdriven.  To be sure, a hammer can 
be made so as to be impossible, or nearly so, to work up any real 
elasticity...  and you do have the real qualitative difference between 
hammers meant to be needled and those meant for addition of lacquer.  
But that said if you have a decently made set in front of you, you can 
get them to work.  Some may require a bit more work then others... some not.

With regard to hammers meant to be needled.... I'd also like to point 
out that it increasingly seems to me that there is no such thing as the 
hammer that just sounds good from the get go... and we can leave them as 
is.  Recent experiences showed me quite clearly that even moderately 
soft hammers benefit greatly (with regards to increased elasticity and 
dynamic range) if needled to release lower and mid shoulder tensions 
even if this requires a good soaking of very thin solids lacquer 
afterwards.  Indeed, this has become really a third road for me, and a 
surprising one at that.

Cheers
RicB




    Hi All,

    I was wandering if any of you have tried the Abel "Select" from
    Pianotek vs. other hammers. I have put them in a Mason & Hamlin CC, two
    9'2" Bechstein ENs, and several Steinways. I have found them to give a
    great sound with little voicing. I have been told that from one of the
    professors that played a new Steinway B at another university that
    while the new B had a great sound, it could not match the sound of the
    Steinway B that I put the Abel "Select" hammers on. I was also told by
    all of the staff that neither of the Bechsteins sounded nearly as good
    as they do now. I was just told by a guest artist that she loved the
    Mason & Hamlin because of the beautiful coloring of the tone of the
    piano. Just curious to see if anyone else out there has tried these
    hammers and how they liked them.

    Bill Balmer, RPT