That is what I remember. As I recall, I asked Del, and that's what he told me. Of course, memory is a shifty thing, but my surprise made it stick, so I feel reasonably sure that is what I was told. It was a prototype, I believe, first one made, so perhaps in production they changed. Fred On Jun 25, 2010, at 11:00 AM, David Love wrote: > Are you sure it had Ronsen Bacon? The early iterations of those > pianos had > Abel hammers and they were too hard. I spent some time out at the > factory > with Del sampling some other hammers including Ronsen Bacon and Ronsen > Wurzen but I don't think they ever put either one of them into > production. > Both he and I liked the Bacon hammer the best on that piano and that > was > unadulterated (no lacquer) and no play in time. They had an Abel > hammer > made for them which, at the time, was about as soft a pressing as > Abel was > able to do and it was still too much for that piano. The powers > that be > opted to maintain the Abel hammers. The issue seemed to be defining > who > they were in competition with for market share. I think Del felt > that this > piano was to be an alternative to a Steinway style tone, darker and > warmer. > The folks at Walter (at least the marketing folks--I think Charles > and Del > were on the same page) felt that Yamaha was their competition, > sadly. The > designs are very different in terms of scale tensions and accompanying > soundboard weighting. The belly is very light and a soft hammer > does a > terrific job with it. A harder hammer (or a lacquered Bacon hammer > perhaps) > would not show as well. > > David Love > www.davidlovepianos.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf > Of Fred > Sturm > Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 8:13 AM > To: caut at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Hammers > > On Jun 24, 2010, at 8:47 PM, David Love wrote: > >> It's just that the >> belly is so responsive that all it needs is that soft hammer to >> drive it and >> develop the full range of partials. > > > I played the Walter grand Del designed at a convention a couple > years > ago, and found it very badly needed voicing down (and I like a bright > piano). I asked, and was told it had Ronsen Bacon hammers. Surprised > the heck out of me. Definitely a different animal. I'll be curious to > see what the Weber he designed is like (there will be one at Vegas I > am told). > Regards, > Fred Sturm > fssturm at unm.edu > http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm > http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm > http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm > > > > Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Twain
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