[CAUT] Wieckert felt?

[Fred Sturm]

Well, maybe there is some additional verbiage involved. Maybe it is  
something along the lines of "Weickert special something or other."  
OTOH, I did ask Norbert Abel a direct question (Will you be using  
Weickert felt?) and thought the answer was as I described, that this  
was a Renner deal, though he said Abel did use some felt from Wurzen  
(they buy felt from a number of suppliers).
	As for what a hammer manufacturer does to the felt, what shape it is  
cut, how hard it is pressed and so forth, that is another question  
also. I am impressed by the processing of the felt itself, as  
described and from the samples that were presented to us, and by my  
experience with Abel Natural hammers and the Renner Weickert as  
installed in a piano (I haven't used Ronsen for a long time - all the  
sets I ever got or worked with were far too soft as a starting point).
	The Renner Weickerts in the Ravenscroft were definitely not soft  
hammers. They had plenty of power. (My taste tends toward wanting a  
bright piano). Michael Spreeman told me he had done nothing but pre- 
voice and shape. Watching him stick some needles in hammers in the  
voicing class (pressing them in, not jabbing), it was obvious that  
there was effort involved. And it was obvious that a few strokes made  
a difference (he had left a few hammers that weren't pre-voiced, and  
did deep shoulder, 5 or so strokes per low to mid shoulder, in the  
class). I played a piece at the end of the class, so I actually played  
those hammers in relative quiet (not just in the exhibit hall). They  
needed some additional work to get more on the bottom end  
(pianissimo), but were quite adequate for concerto or whatever.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu
"I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played."  
Schnabel
On Jul 27, 2009, at 3:31 PM, Porritt, David wrote:

> 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





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