[pianotech] Abel naturals - report

Dale Erwin erwinspiano at aol.com
Tue Jul 20 10:24:34 MDT 2010



 

 

.....



Dale Erwin wrote: 
>    Actually I have seen much inconsistency in hammers, set to set, as is > witnessed by this thread and I don't believe it's all poor choice of > hammers for soundboard style*. 
 
No, nothing is *ALL* anything, but hammer choice ought to start with what they're going on, and what's expected of the result, shouldn't it? 
 
>  * So, I don't disagree that " just needs voicing" can be an excuse for > the choice or the hammer...  
"Just needs the right voicing" is exactly what I hear most out there. 
Understood
 
>so how does the _objective evaluation_ > happen quantifiably in you mind. 
 
Likely very much like it does in yours. You probably wouldn't put Bacons on a stock D in a large hall any more than you'd put Imadegawas on a chamber instrument. You'd decide, based on your experience, which hammer was best suited (closest) to what the piano and the venue need. 
  Right, and if those who recognize they don't have the experience would just ask those who are offering it...t'would would be wisdom in action.  Hey that's what I do.  That's how I learned a lot o-stuff.

 
 >  by the way, my real bias is that over time we techs have been marketed 
 > to believe that a good hammer _must_ be needled extensively to produce 
 > tone and be deemed a "Good Hammer".   rubbish. 
 
Before that, we were taught at the alter that a sweat sock on a stick could be turned into the ideal (perfect?) hammer by a months long process of applying a magic but strangely unquantified and largely unobtainable lacquer with the proper incantations and gesticulation. While some people CAN turn a sweat sock on a stick into a very convincing simulation of a working hammer, I don't think I'd consider it to be the ideal approach. There's rubbish, and there's great steaming piles of other stuff. It's a matter of degree.
 A little lacquer, non magic, can help as can a little needling. This requires a hammer that was somewhere in the functional range of what the piano and venue needed before voicing. 
The less voicing required, the better you guessed.
   ZZZZactly....give this man a free set of hammers. 
   This, I know, is what you're working at, and I approve wholeheartedly. 
  Thank you
 
Have we disagreed here on anything at all yet? 
Nope-Dale
Ron N 
 
Incidentally, my spell checker just suggested "Megawatts" as a correction for "Imadegawas". <G> 

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100720/bc824121/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the pianotech mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC