Thanks Del; that's very informative. I have heard your pianos, and they sound wonderful, and so do those of Dale and Ron . My feeling is that softer hammers, without dope, need a responsive soundboard. Which is what appeals to me. One time I was at a small piano factory, asking questions, and the superintendant told me, almost belligerently, that their soundboards would not give even one sixty-fourth of an inch under downbearing pressure. Their sound was ugly and rife with false beats. One of my customers has a remarkably beautiful sounding RX7 Kawai grand. Its hammers are somewhat soft and free of dope, and there is more than adequate power Ted Sambell. ________________________________ From: Delwin D Fandrich <del at fandrichpiano.com> To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Tue, March 1, 2011 10:35:11 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights Modified versions of this taper are common today. The last hammer cauls I designed were of this type. They are not a “straight continuous taper from the bottom hammer to about note 72,” though. They hold fairly straight through about the middle of the scale and then curve gently down to the top. This gives a smoother mass transition and, hence, a smoother voice gradient across the compass of the scale. One difficulty with this style of hammer is need to match the thickness of the felt to that of the caul. It is not as easy as it is with a straight taper; more care has to be taken with quality control measurements to make sure the dimension of the felt you’ve received matches the dimension of the felt you’ve ordered. And at least some hammermakers are learning how to work with heated side cauls in ways that do not destroy the “working” portion of the felt—i.e., from the parting line around the crown of the hammer. Technology is wonderful. OK, some technology is wonderful. Well, a little bit of it is, anyway…. ddf Delwin D Fandrich Piano Design & Fabrication 620 South Tower Avenue Centralia, Washington 98531 USA del at fandrichpiano.com ddfandrich at gmail.com Phone 360.736.7563 From:caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Edward Sambell Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 6:23 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights Years ago,many sets of hammers were double tapered. That is, there was a straight continuous taper from the bottom hammer to about note 72, which actually had a greater bulk of felt than #72 on later sets. From there to the top they tapered more sharply, so that C88 had less felt than today's hammers. I asked Jack Brand about this two years ago at the Canadian Assn. of Piano Technicians convention in Toronto. He knew exactly what I was talking about. Once,. I was able to obtain two double tapered sets and really liked the results. but the maker at the time, D, M. Best would not supply them any more. No doubt it would have meant modifying their equipment. Instead, they threw out all but two of their sixteen hammer presses, destroying most of them, and installed heating coils on the last two. From then on the hammers were a disaster. They used a thermal setting glue and staples instead of wiring them through. The hammers were in and out of the press in fifteen minutes. For a time the felt was coming unglued on some of the hammers, till they finally got the problem under control. Staples are completely useless as they barely penetrate into the moldings, so they simply pulled right out.I am sorry to see Abel using them in their vertical hammers now, though they are a fine product and the staples are merely cosmetic.We had few choices in those days, and are lucky now there are good alternatives. I would still like to have a choice of double tapered hammers. Ted Sambell ________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20110301/0093b3ef/attachment-0001.htm>
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