Hammer weight

[stanwood]

Don Wrote:

>     I have heard a Steinway D with _extremely_ light hammers being
>     used in a concerto in a large concert hall, and there was no problem
>     hearing the piano - the piano sound was more than ample.

Don,

Any chance of getting strike weight numbers off this instrument?
What makes you say they were extremely light?

Hall acoustics and the resonance of the particular instrument play a
significant role.  I have heard a number of instruments with strike weights
in the medium projection zone that project with no problem.  But I've had
many more cases were increasing strike weight eliminated problems of
projection and ensemble balance.

By the way Steinway is changing over to the Hamburg specs in there actions.
This means that were the average ratio was 6.0 or higher the NY actions will
have closer to a 5.5 ratio, the result of standardizing their key ratios to
the same as the Hamburg instruments.

The Sostenuto will also be on the belly rail as in the Hamburg instruments.

Stanwood