[CAUT] Lacquered hammers

[Ron Nossaman]

On 2/19/2011 10:42 AM, Dale Erwin wrote:
> Fascinating discussion. Now were gettin somewhere....fast
> I think that the hammers and the felt were always treated in some cases.
> I don't think projection and power were less a need and desire by
> concert artist playing in large orchestras.

But power and projection don't get it. I've demonstrated how the 
unlacquered and voiced down hammers on my remanufactures will project 
just as well into the hall, and sound better doing it in my opinion, 
than the (to me) painfully bright piano of the same model right next to 
it. Positive comments are made about tone quality, usable dynamic range, 
inaudible break transitions, clearness of the top third of the scale, 
and overall balance throughout the compass. The complaint was that it 
didn't blow the pianists eyebrows back sitting at the piano, which they 
were aware would be the case before I even started on the rebuild.

The biggest problem I have with the acceptance of these redesigns, is 
that while a production piano that has had a million iterations of 
presumed refinement in the build process is allowed an extensive list of 
faults and deficiencies, and is even praised for them if the name on the 
fall board is right. A one-off redesign, with no previous iteration is, 
however, expected to be all things to everyone, and absolutely perfect 
under the closest scrutiny. It's also, somehow, expected to be just like 
the original, only better somehow. Civilians are great. They tend to 
recognize the merits and usually really love the sound. The most common 
phrase I hear is "It makes me sound better than I am". It's the techs 
who have a large portion of their lives invested in disguising, 
justifying, and finally glorifying the toad's warts that they couldn't 
disguise that are the core of the lack of progress. I've watched the 
state of the art being relentlessly dragged back into the stone age for 
the last week on this list, and I think it's a shame.

We grade everything different against what we're used to. It's partially 
intellectual, but mostly glandular. I have little doubt that if we had 
grown up listening to pianos like the redesigns coming out of good 
rebuild shops, we would have no tolerance for badly balanced scales, 
bright metallic voicing, aurally obvious (to offensive) break 
transitions, and killer octaves and trebles that overdrive into 
distortion at anything over moderate attack levels.

But then, I'm not an expert.
Ron N