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

[David Ilvedson]

The "negative influence of bullies & dictators" is minimal, but we do have at least one wanna be dictator...;-]

David I.


>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)
>>
>>