[CAUT] Steinway Institutional Service Recommendations

[A440A@aol.com]

<< Artists are generally polite, but when pressed, usually agree that  
the action is 'heavy and unresponsive' (I have the t/w numbers to  
support this, but won't bore you with them ... yet) coupled with  
relatively soft hammers.

The challenge is to convince the generous donors of this instrument  
that further investment is necessary to bring out it's best.  I'd  
like to intersperse my recommendations with 'official' Steinway and  
PTG bulletins. >>

      I don't know about official bulletins, but the normal Steinway 
treatment seems to be to soak the hammers in a 4:1 thinner/lacquer(and they don't 
really define "lacquer" in terms of solids, either), then begin your voicing from 
there.  I have even heard "3:1" used to describe factory approach.  
    A small hall sometimes makes large hammers too expensive,(from a touch 
perspective), so "heaviness" may be approached from the weight reduction 
direction while hardening the hammers  addresses the "response" end of things.  One 
thing to check for in Steinway hammers that haven't yet been fully baptized is 
to see that the core felt, right above the tip of the molding, is hard as a 
rock.  If it is yielding at all, the piano will probably have weak projection. 
Good luck, 



Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html