[CAUT] My take on them, (was The "new" S&S Hammers).

[Richard Brekne]

Sounds to me like the Ronsen Wurzen II's are very comparable to the 
Renner Wurzen II's we get here in Europe. At least Davids description 
fit to a tee.  In response to Doug Woods post I'd like to just say that 
I for one have no doubt Steinway NY gets the sound they want with the 
hammers <<as is>> they supply. I adhere to the contention that no matter 
what you do... lacquered hammers will always produce a significantly 
different character then needled unlacquered hammers. My personal 
preference is for the latter.  That said... to each his own.  The 
comment about S&S catering to the overwhelming majority of pianists in 
the world is a curious one tho in this context... since apparently a 
significant if not overwhelming majority of these prefer the Hamburg in 
most instances.  What that in the end says about hammer voicing 
preferences I'll leave up to the individual to ponder.

As far as Bacon versus Wurzen II.  I have to say that I have run into 
Wurzens II sets that were very very very soft.  I'm not sure as to the 
claims that this has so much to do with the felt itself as to the degree 
of pressure is used in the pressing.  I've yet to see a side by side 
comparison of these two no doubt fine raw hammer felts ready for 
pressing to see which is denser from the get go.  I'd wager however that 
either could be made either too hard to too soft for just about anyones 
tastes.

All this goes back to my origional post on this matter.  Get your own 
voice and voicing style down pat.  And select the hammers that YOU 
prefer working with to get it.  It is not IMHO even remotely neccessary 
to adhere to someone elses idea of what any given piano should sound 
like.  The window for acceptable voicing is actually quite large... 
which means for every 10 pianists you wow.... there are at the very 
least another 10 who will be less then impressed.

My take.. :)

Cheers
RicB



    I haven't seen a Ronsen Bacon felt hammer for a long time but that's
    what I understand also that the Bacon felt is softer.  My experience
    with the Wurzen AA felt ones has been very good.  The denser felting
    doesn't pack like softer hammers, yet if they get bright needles
    penetrate quite easily.  I don't have an electron microscope so my
    observations are very unscientific but the Wurzen felt seems just more
    dense from the felting process rather than the hammer pressing process.
     >From what I heard of the testing on a new Walter grand, the Bacon felt
    was better on the very live sounding board assembly.  On most sounding
    boards that we see the Bacon felt needs some hardener.  

     

    Try a set of the Wurzen AAs I think you'll really like them.

     

    dp

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