of Q-tips and bricks...was Night And Day

[antares]

I was not so much talking about my personal preference, I was just curious
about what you guys think of the Hamburg Renners as they now all have this
fabulous Wurzen felt.
Years ago I was among the very first ones in Europe to purchase Renner
hammers with this felt (right after the Berlin wall) and shortly thereafter
noticed that Steinway (Hamburg) and even Yamaha (on their CFIII-S) used this
felt (and now, years later) many other factories).
On top of that I received private lessons in (amongst others) the Yamaha
Concert Grand department on voicing Wurzen felt, so I should know at least
something about it.
I think that to get acquainted with one of the best hammer felts of this
moment could be interesting and valuable, and the more so if more than one
of the top piano makers makes use of it all the time.

I have noticed however that talking on this list is a sensitive and serious
matter. Europeans and Americans 'often' have different tasts, methods,
techniques, materials. I have learned this a long time ago and maybe it
would be wise to again explain that it was/s never my intention to push my
opinion here. One of the interesting aspects of this forum is the exchange
of ideas without the negative influence of bullies and dictators.

just my two EURO's

friendly greetings
from

Antares,

Amsterdam, Holland

"where music is, no harm can be"

visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/


> From: JIMRPT@AOL.COM
> Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 09:08:49 EDT
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: of Q-tips and bricks...was Night And Day
> 
> 
> In a message dated 02/07/02 8:04:07 AM, antares@EURONET.NL writes:
> 
> << OK, I'll shut up then. >>
> 
> Don't you dare.......................if'n y'all does yo hammer gonna fall
> off......
> 
> There are soooo many hammer makers because there is such a wide variety of
> tastes in initial tone. Perception of the installer has a great deal to do
> with what is :
> "too hard", too soft"... Oh to be sure there are objective measurements that
> can be done...but we don't listen to measurements we listen to tone. For any
> tech too say that a particular brand of hammer is too hard in general....is
> in itself a 'perceptual' general statement that can be safely ignored.  With
> most of the different hammer qualities being more or less mutually exclusive
> one hammer can't be all things to all techs...........
> 
> Voicing philosophy must come into play with each new set of hammers
> installed and should be taken into account 'before' the hammer is purchased.
> It is no secret that I use Abel and Renner almost to the exclusion of
> anything else... I do so because to my way of thinking there is no finer
> hammer on the market than one of these two.  Does that make me right and
> everyone else wrong?...of course not.
> 
> If your preference is to start with Q-tips and harden them to a usable
> point ...then go right ahead and do so....
> On the other hand if bricks suit you better...have at it.  Just bear in mind
> that your choice does not nullify the choice of others, nor does it make you
> right and them wrong. Jon says that he prefers to start with a firmer hammer
> and voice down as opposed to a softer hammer and juice up and I agree with
> him and that particular philosophy. As anecdotal evidence of the veracity of
> this choice let me say that I have many, many, many sets of Abels and Renners
> on 'performance' pianos and pianos owned by 'professionals' up and down the
> East coast and I have 'never' been asked to change a set of hammers...I think
> to find three sets with the same player says more about taste/technique than
> it does about the hammers.
> 
> As for "can't we get away from this".....no we can't..not if we want to
> duplicate the tonal qualities of a particular instrument as closely as
> possible....everything changes over the years of course but generally
> speaking if we want a Hamburg to sound like a Hamburg than we need to use the
> same thingees Hamburg used.  We can, however, use something different and
> arrive at a verrry pleasing tonal quality that is 'different' from but not
> needfully 'better' than the original.....
> 
> Manufacturers use what they use because they get the results they desire
> best from what thay use...if not, they will change what they use. Individual
> techs use what they use for similar reasons....Your choice 'juice up' or
> 'voice down' butttt keep in mind 'your choice' is just that.
> My view.
> Jim Bryant (FL)
> 
>