I really think that this whole buisness of matching hammers to soundboards is rather overstated. We were here just a couple months back with old pianos with so called weak soundboards. Of course there are extremities... but there are certainly many quality hammers that in the hands of a compentent enough voicer can bring out the very best in an instrument... one way or another. I noticed that Abel Select hammers were cited as the hammer best for one of the instruments used along this track. Given the fact that it seemed evident that the assessed problem was that other hammers were too hard I found this very odd. Abel Select, at least what we get under that name, are anything but very soft hammers, and certainly harder then the Wurzen pressed by Renner, certainly harder then Ronsens I've had the opportunity to use, and way harder then the NY Steinway hammers I've run into. That said... not a single one of the hammers mentioned are not more then workable for any decent piano IMHO. Let me put it this way..... you put any good piano, and any of the mentioned set of hammers, and Andre (or any voicer of his calibre) in the same room for a couple days..... I dont think I need say any more. No doubt some systems require more or less from the hammer side of the whole equation. That goes without saying. Cheers RicB Well I meant that more as a question than a statement. One thing that does interest me is how CC vs RC&S methods influence, either in design or execution, the relationship between mass and spring rate and how that might relate to proper hammer matching. Which system, for example, tends to have a thicker panel? It seems that the CC panel is generally thicker in the center and tapered toward the rim whereas the RC&S panel is slightly thinner and more uniform in thickness (except maybe around the bass perimeter). Is that correct? Might not the difference in mass distribution of the CC panel explain differences in hammer matching and potentially some tonal differences? It seems that the CC panel requires a much denser and possibly less flexible hammer than the RC&S board (at least in my experience). Whether the tone production potential between the two with appropriate hammers is net/net, is something I can't really answer but do wonder about. The subject might point to some differences.
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