Hammer Types

[David Love]

I would have to concur with that.  The couple of people who liked the
Wurzens seemed to be those who were thinking in terms of their Yamaha
customers--not a good model for this design.  

In terms of the voicing required for the Bacon felt hammers, it was really
very minimal.  Both Bacon and Wurzen sets were put on the pounder for 6
hours before I got to them.  As expected I spent a fair amount of time doing
"pre-voicing" type of work: fitting, spacing, regulating, etc.  With the
Bacon felt hammers, the first capo section needed a bit of light filing (150
grit gang filed fairly modestly) and the piano came up very nicely.  The
rest of the piano was just right including the top end--though some filing
was done after the hammers were hung in that section, I believe.  Light
crown needling to smooth things out was all that was needed after that.
Aside from the pre-voicing routine, I spent not more than an hour to get
them up and running and smoothed out.  

The Wurzens, on the other hand, were a couple of hours of needling (most
heavily in the bass section) and the level was still above where I would
have liked it--and where the Bacon felt hammers were out of the box) as Del
mentioned in the other post.  How the hammers would continue to develop was
a concern with the Wurzens, not so with the Bacon felt hammers.  The Wurzens
would have needed constant attention to keep them from getting to harsh.  I
thought the Bacon felt hammers would not only not have that problem but
would likely improve with a bit of playing time. 

After spending a hour or two needling the Abel hammers, it was clear that I
would not be able to achieve the proper voice within the time I felt
reasonable for a factory/production situation (if at all) so I didn't pursue
it much after that.  I smoothed things out so that everyone could get a
sense of the overall level but left them where they seemed determined to
stay.   

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Delwin D Fandrich
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:21 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: Hammer Types

 

| -----Original Message-----
| From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
| [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Love
| Sent: October 06, 2006 7:01 AM
| To: 'Pianotech List'
| Subject: RE: Hammer Types
| 
| . . . In all fairness, a couple of 
| the listeners (there were probably 8 - 10 people who listened 
| to the results) did prefer the Wurzen hammer (no one 
| preferred the Abels) but only after fairly heavy voicing.  
|

Our choice was confirmed over the next several days as a number of other
people
were able to listen to and evaluate these three pianos. The piano with the
Ronsen/Bacon hammers was growing in popularity. 

The preference for the harder sounding hammers does depend, somewhat, on the
type of music being played. It has been my observation that some pianists
really
have little use for a broad timbral range. Several of the folks who
expressed a
preference for the Ronsen/Wurzen (or the Abel) hammers played with a fairly
heavy hand. In some cases rarely, if ever, getting much below a mezzo-forte.
In
these cases there is little need for anything approaching pianissimo. 

Del