[CAUT] How much voicing on new NY hammers/ Re-visited

Kent Swafford kswafford at gmail.com
Fri Jan 14 10:31:25 MST 2011


It's funny. Before I came into check email, I was hanging sample genuine
Steinway hammers on a D I have in the shop, and was very happy with the
sound of those samples.

In the last few years, you know, there has been a transition in the Steinway
factory to the current pre-lacquered hammers, and that transition may
account for some of the variation we have seen, as they have adjusted things
to suit their needs.

The last 2 sets seem to have been both similar to each other and pleasing to
me. If they are gonna be like the last 2 sets for a while, then I'll be
happy with Steinway hammers.

BTW, the last two or three sets of Steinway shanks & flanges I have gotten
have been the best I've ever seen, from _any_ manufacturer.

Ask again in a few months.

Kent




On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:14 AM, Paul T Williams <
pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:

> Hi Kent and all,
>
> I quite discouraged with the set of factory hammers for one of our D's we
> discussed a couple months ago.  I've had to juice them several times all
> over.  I still don't like the tenor and killer octaves all the way up to
> C-7.  They're hung nice and straight, but for fun, I moved the action in and
> out a small amount (like2-4mm) to see if the killer area was going to need
> altering in the strike point.  Not much happened, so they stay where they
> are.
>
> Of course, they haven't had a lot of playing in yet.  I get so-so fff and
> the ppp is pretty good.  I don't like much of anything inbetween except the
> middle 2 octaves and bass.  It's just weak sounding. String mating is good
> and regulation is great, so it's either that these aren't a great set of
> hammers, or the soundboard has some issues (this piano is from the 80's or
> early 90's)  It was a C&A piano, so it's got a different serial number, but
> that's what Richard West says, and since he was here, that's what it is...
>
> I might consider trying some Hamburg hammers sometime, but I'll really have
> to think long and hard about getting another NY set.
>
> What about y'all?
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>  From: Kent Swafford <kswafford at gmail.com> To: caut at ptg.org Date: 10/13/2010
> 05:27 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] How much voicing on new NY hammers
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> I have found no consistent answer to your question. The last set of D
> hammers I put on needed to be juiced up a bit in the top two sections and
> was then ready to go; the set before that has been juiced twice throughout
> and is not yet bright enough; the one before that was OK in the tenor but
> needed to be juiced everywhere else.
>
> Hanging these is like spinning the wheel of fortune. I'd be interested in
> knowing where yours land.
>
> Kent
>
>
> On Oct 13, 2010, at 4:17 PM, Paul T Williams wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> Quick question;  how much voicing is typically needed on the new NY hammers
> for our D?  I have a very small window to put a set on our D in the main
> hall.  They're pre-hung and I have them here in the shop.  The project
> starts tomorrow.
>
> Thanks
> Paul
>
>
>
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