[CAUT] Wieckert felt?

[Porritt, David]

Fred:

I hope Dale Erwin will chime in here at some point as he knows far more about these than I do.  Last Christmas I hung a set of Weikert felt hammers that I got from Ray Negron at Ronsen.  They were soft (softer than I usually like) and I had to dope them twice to get enough sound out of a B that is in a small teaching studio.  They were softer than the Steinway hammers on the B next to it and the Steinway hammers had not been doped.  After two applications of keytop they came out really nice but they were way past mellow out of the box.

This summer I was going to replace the hammers on a piano in another piano professor's studio who particularly likes a very mellow piano so I talked to Ray about getting another set.  He told me that the last Weikert felt he had received was so soft that he sent it back.  I went with a set of the Wurzen felt for that set.

The Wiekert felt is still listed on Ray's price list so I'm not sure that the "exclusive" deal with Renner is factual.  Of course I only catch up with this stuff when I need to order a set of hammers so I'm not an authority on who's selling what.

dave


David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu<mailto:dporritt at smu.edu>

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 4:16 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Wieckert felt?

Hi Mark,
            Wurzen is the name of a felt company, which sells felt under that name to Abel, Ronsen, Renner, etc. Weickert is a specific brand name of a specific felt being made by Wurzen, apparently under exclusive license to Renner (So Norbert Abel told me when I asked if Abel would use Weickert).
            Weickert was a premium felt of 75-125 years ago or so. In a way, this is like Samick reviving the Knabe name. Jack Brand (owner of Wurzen) said there was a good bit of documentation about Weickert felt retained by the factory. To give a little more background, Wurzen was expropriated by East Germany in the 40's, and quality went way down (so we are told). After the reunification of Germany, Brand and family reclaimed their own felt company, and then decided to buy Wurzen as well. This process of rebuilding the Wurzen name and quality level has been going on for maybe as long as 15 years. So some of this is PR, capitalizing on a name from the past. But I believe there is a lot of real, significant advance in felt-making going on as well. And, as I wrote earlier, I think the Abel Natural is a similar advance, and along the same lines.
            As far as I know, Weickert will only be available from Renner, and that hasn't happened yet. We were told there were a total of two sets of Weickert hammers in the US, one of them having just been installed on the Ravenscroft.
            So that's about all I know, and it is based on conversations with a couple people, together with what various people said in classes. Confusing stuff. If anyone has different information, I'd love to be corrected.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu<mailto:fssturm at unm.edu>
"I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played." Schnabel
On Jul 27, 2009, at 2:48 PM, Mark Cramer wrote:


Sorry I'm a few days behind on this Fred. Thanks for your excellent report on the convention. I'm a little confused with the following comment though;

"Weickert felt (a product of the Wurzen felt company licensed exclusively to Renner)"

It seems I've been discussing "Wurzen" and "Weickert" interchangeably, and am now confused somewhat beyond the usual. Can anyone help with the following?

*         The Renner USA Premium Blue hammer, is made exclusively with WURZEN felt, but not necessarily with the Weickert product?

(I can't imagine any similarity between the ABEL natural felt and a Renner Premium Blue, though both are significant products in their own right)

*         How does Renner (Europe) market/label hammers made with the Weickert felt?

*         Don't Ronsen and Pacific Piano Supply make hammers with the Weickert felt, or are these just generic WURZEN felt?

*         Are the Ronsen Wurzens and Pacific Supply hammers similar, the same (made by Ray for Pacific, etc.) or entirely different ?

Thanks all,

Mark Cramer,
Brandon University





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