[CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid

Paul T Williams pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu
Thu Feb 10 13:56:42 MST 2011


Hi all,

How often have you received a bum set of hammers from Steinway NY?  I've 
tried every trick in the book on the Steinway D I've been talking about 
over the past couple months, but no luck.  They just don't want to 
respond.  No charm, character or projection. The regulation is great, 
string mating is great, ppp is OK, but mf and up just suck!  I've put far 
too many hours voicing one might expect to do with a new set of anything. 

I suppose 1 set in about 20 I've done isn't bad, but this is a concert 
piano.  I had better luck with our other D with Wally's "special Natural 
Abel" hammers.  The piano faculty is also disappointed in the piano now, 
and, of course, many recitals to go.  I did switch the two pianos out. 
This one was in our large recital hall and the Wally Steinway was in our 
small recital hall and too overbearing for a poorly designed room that 
seats only 250. 

I've found the Wally's really brighten up a lot after a year or so, so 
I'll still need to do the 100,000 note "tune up" this summer.  We'll see 
if that calms them down until this summer.

Im now thinking of a set of Hamburgs for this problem piano.  The D in the 
Lied Center just got new Hamburgs, and sounds fantastic.

Thoughts? I'm really not liking the idea of scrapping these hammers, so if 
any of you have a last ditch approach, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks
Paul
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