[pianotech] Weickert Hammers

[Paul T Williams]

Hi Ed.

A fine reply.  So, you would say that these would work great for practice 
rooms?  My Abel naturals from wally are absolutely awesome, but waaaay too 
powerful for a 10x10 practice room.  I have to voice the heck out of them 
to calm them down.  On stage, they're awesome! no complaints from 
students, though, so I guess they like it.  I like it too, but really 
really powerful hammers. The piano faculty and director are all giddy 
about the ones I installed on the D in our smallest recital room (seats 
250) this summer. It's really, now, a great piano.

Paul




From:
Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com>
To:
pianotech at ptg.org
Date:
09/18/2009 01:12 PM
Subject:
[pianotech] Weickert Hammers



Greetings,
  Just thought I would file a progress report on these Weickert hammers. I 
installed them in a 1925 model M this summer. They were soft, too soft. 
Though it really sounded warm and round,  as I leaned on the keys, there 
was little change in color, and the top limit of brilliance was not there. 
 They were just sounding weak. 
   I juiced the whole set with a 7:1 lacquer dilution by putting an 
eyedropper full on the each side of the hammers. The tip of the eyedropper 
was touching the felt just above the tip of the molding, and I could see 
the mix radiating out into the lower felt. This keeps the solution away 
from the strike point, but firms up the deep felt below.   The top and 
bottom octave got approx. one eyedropper full on the strike point. 
This did little to change the tone but the upper treble did begin to speak 
a little. 
    The piano has now been in a practice room at the Vanderbilt, and it 
has been played about 9 hours a day for the last three weeks.  BIG 
difference.  Nice tone, no harshness, and a controllable change from 
mellow pianissimo to a full throated forte when you put some muscle in the 
key.  If it would stay like this for a semester or two, it would be great. 
 I did slide a needle in a couple of hammers in the fifth octave that had 
a bit of an edge, and they appear to take the needle with ease, voicing 
quite readily. 
Hope that is some interest to those that want to try these.  A big factor 
is the expense of these hammers compared to the factory ones.  The sound 
is virtually the same, the cost is much better.  I don't know about the 
durability, but will know in a year or two. 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html

 

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