Voicing down hammers

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

JD
  This is interesting feedback from the time yet look at the early  Steinway 
NY hammers.  It was a very light hammer with seemingly fine  felt.  It has an 
almost cashmere quality to it.  My guess is that the  original Steinway sound 
was fairly dark/strong & mellow & brightened  with felt 
compaction/playing/String marks & age to produce the tone Concert  Pianist/techs required. Perhaps 
the evolution of this kind of powerful sound led  to the evolutionary use of 
shellac & then lacquer as hardener. NOw we have  ever harder hammers. However I 
think the pendulam is swinging back the other way  toward a less dense/hard 
hammer in some circles & find that musicians here  are begging for it or at 
least entirely relieved to sit at a piano that has  dynamics,color & sustain.
  Best regards
  Dale


"In earlier times leather was  generally used for covering
piano  hammer-heads.  A strong belt- or sole-leather was used
to form the innermost layer, over which a an  appropriate
number of layers of so-called  pianoforte-leather were laid
to achieve  the desired result.

The demand for a  bigger piano tone necessitated first a
thickening of the strigs and of the soundboard and these
made imperative a thicker hammer covering.  Since  such
heavier coverings became too costly  owing to the labour
involved in their  production, people switched to using felt
for the covering of the hammers.

Although considerable progress has been made in manufacture
of suitable felt for covering hammers that is not only  thick
enough and strong enough but has  also the required tonal
properties,  nevertheless the tone produced by felt-covered
hammers remains the 'felt tone' an so far cannot match
in clarity the tone produced by leather-covered  hammers.

Experiments have been made  to improve the tone by using a
top  covering of leather.  Various reasons, which will not be
discussed here, have worked either singly or in  combination
to thwart the hoped-for  result.  The fact is, that at the
moment (1897) no hammer covering exists to equal the
leather-covered hammer in bringing  out the sustain,  the
sweetness and the clarity of the  tone..."

JD

 



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