I'm still not convinced about the application of hardeners to the prewar sets but what you say below I think that might very well be true, at least from what one can glean from the condition of those hammers now. But that pre war felt and hammers was something quite different to begin with and it also seems that the amount of felt over the crown was less than is often seen on the newer sets. They may well have developed in a relatively short amount of time. You could play the current hammers (going back well into the 1990s) for the rest of your life and without lacquer they're just never going to do develop anywhere close to where they need to be. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com The other side of this discussion involves the cultural tonal shift. It takes time to develop any warm/less hot pressed hammer and play in time requires understanding and patience that the tone will bloom with playing. By in large this component of tone development (I believe) used to be a normal part of the break in mentality toward a new piano. Now the instant on generation has its way and so hammers and voicing techniques have changed to give....Instant gratification. What a wonderful concept. SO there are choices to be made build a different system and use softer hammers and or use a hammer that matches the system life gives you. Dale S. Erwin www.Erwinspiano.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20110219/21977bdb/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC