More CC vs RC questions was RE: Killer Octave & Pitch Raise

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Arnold

Thats what I mean by the issue being overstated.  This is basically the 
standpoint taken by those who argue that lacquered hammers can be made 
to sound very similiar to needled hammers.  A given instrument with its 
own soundboard / scale / rim / ets... will require a certain amount of 
hardness / resiliency / etc etc... to come within that window of fine 
piano sound.  Many hammers can be manipulated to accomplish this... some 
easier then others.  Depending on how you go about it, the hammer itself 
can impart its own bit of colour to the picture as well..  Some like to 
soften the shoulders up and harden the nob under the crown... others 
like to insure a very firm shoulder and manipulate the crown areal 
only... some do either with or without lack.

Of course tho... certain hammers bring themselves easier into line for a 
given piano.  The thing I've enjoyed about the Wurzens from Renner is 
that they work so well on so many different pianos. Certainly the Bossie 
is a very different instrument from the Steinway, and from the Bluthner, 
and from again a Bechstein.  But I've used these now on all of these 
without any difficulty in getting a very good sound.  Having Andre as my 
teacher, and scoring extremely high at Hamatsu in voicing.... I have to 
assume I have a decent enough handle on what a good voicing job ends up 
being. So my own position on hammers ends up being the same.  A good 
resilient felt, pressed to the appropriate degree for any given 
instrument... and the rest is up to the voicer.

A while back Del wrote a bit about hammers, and from what I got out of 
it he seemed most concerned with being able to know these basic 
characterisitics ahead of time far more then he was concerned with 
anything else. Even the actual dead weight was much less interesting. He 
no doubt will correct this if it is in error.

Cheers
RicB

Arnold writes

....But then on the other hand we use our Wurzen 
hammer for a modern Boesendorfer and for an old one,  we also use them 
for old Steinway's and newer one.  Sometimes different shapes, 
different  amount of stitches but still they are the same felt and we 
have great results and I don't think we are easy to please. Maybe it 
has something to do with the different taste in sound here in Europe 
and in the US.

Greetings
Arnold