To all hammerheads Now that Steinway innovation has once again screwed up there hammers again, by filling them with some unspecified solution (I suspect plastic), I can no longer use them to get the tone I was able to get before. With my favored way of building tone It was necessary to start with a dark sound & build it with lacquer which I humbly admit...I was pretty good at. The last set of Steinway hammers I installed required about 100 needle strokes a piece in the tenor region. This was a 70's German D. I politely expressed my objections to Chad in the parts department & returned two other sets. If you are unhappy with the current Steinway poduct please politely express it to Chad & ask if the old version can be had as well. David Hughes & I have done so already & have encouraged others to do the same. As you all know ,I support anyone doing a good job in our industry who provides us with the parts that we rely on & feedback in a positive form is the only viable alternative to initiating manufacturing changes. imo Long story short, I am just getting the preliminary results with a set of the Bacon Felt hammers from Ray Negron at Ronsen. My test case is 1953 Steinway B with a VERY good original board. My first test hammers revealed a nice dark tone & a huge amount of the sustain. Bingo...this for me is the best place in the world to start. I always prefile before installiing but that's all ...no pre needling or juicing. When the internal friction of a given type of a felt is creating that kind of sustain, for me , I know that I can develop a really powerful clear tone. I think this is why David Love,Bruce Stevens & others are loving this hammer. The old (Steinway) American co. felt when it was pressed right had these same characteristics. Any way I did proceed to use some lacquer in the bass & lighter solution on my test hammers & the piano just came alive. Holy Cow!!! SO easy to get the tone I was looking for. Classic Steinway Sound The Bonus is I don't have to depend on the Mother ship for supplies of hammers costing twice as much. This felt isn't as soft as you may assume from my post & I suspect a bit of filing with fine sandpaper & perhaps a bit of ironing will suffice to develop tone further in many pianos & for many of you. I will report as these hammers develop & as I use them on the next piano which is a 1922 Steinway D in pristine condition with an amaazzingly well preserved board. Yes we have some out here in La La land. Eat your heart out! Best to all Dale -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070107/e0208642/attachment.html
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