[CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights

[Paul T Williams]

Hi Dave,

You're exactly right!  No matter what hammers are on those pianos, they 
get bright....and very quickly!  2 of 5 piano faculty have 2 B's each; one 
has 2 M's, one an L, and the other has her own personal Yam c-7.  It would 
be a nearly full time job to keep them in great tune, regulation, and 
voiced properly.  The yam is the yam and since it's hers, can do very 
little. The M's are nice and not played hard, the L is likewise not 
pounded on, but played regularly and has Abel Naturals on.  It's the 4 B's 
that need constant attention!  One prof is an extremely hard player with 
likewise hard playing students, so I'm fixing broken strings about every 6 
weeks. Mostly this happens in the capo, but the Sty with the Sty hammers 
has busted 4 bass strings in 2 years.  His pianos have a set of regular 
Sty hammers and the other has a set of Wallys Naturals. Both break strings 
about the same. The other prof has NY hammers on both, but not as hard a 
player. I rarely fix broken strings there. 

I try to watch the regulation closely as I can, but I fear if I back off 
the let off and drop, they'll complain that pp or ppp is impossible to 
control.

They are bright!  I'll voice them down, but it only lasts a couple months. 
 I can see how that would tire the poor prof, but what can we do?

Good input!

On to fight another day..
Paul




From:
"David M. Porritt" <dmporritt at gmail.com>
To:
<caut at ptg.org>
Date:
03/03/2011 02:06 PM
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] Fwd:  Steinway sound-Hammer weights



When I was working at SMU the piano teachers with a full load of students
didn't want a loud and boisterous piano in their studio (all had 2 "B"s
except one teacher who had to "D"s).  As one piano teacher with 55 years 
of
experience there stated: "...you can't listen to 4 or 5 hours of a bright
piano.  The cochlea will fatigue and you will miss subtle things."  I 
think
he is absolutely correct.

dave

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of 
David
Love
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 10:49 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights

I agree about the concert hall in most situations although I do have a 
piano
that I work on in a small concert hall in which I worked closely with a
committee of pianists to select hammer and voice for the piano as they
wanted it when I was rebuilding the action for them (Steinway B).  The 
group
of 5 or 6 professional pianists and teachers ended up choosing a Wurzen 
felt
hammer (Ronsen), a comparatively soft pressing when compared with the more
typical lacquered up hammer or a Renner performance type hammer, and with
the exception of the top two octaves received no hardeners, and even then 
a
very light application.  The piano sits next to a 30 year old Bosendorfer
228 which produces somewhat more power and the complaints I get (not too
many :-)) are never about the Steinway being too soft but do happen with 
the
Bosendorfer being too loud and bright and I've voiced it down some to 
please
the even below where I would prefer to hear it.  The hall is rather live
though.  Just one example.  Personally, I find that Steinway a bit dark 
(and
I probably lean toward warmer and slightly darker as my own personal 
taste)
so that might tell you something at least about this one situation and 
this
group of pianists, FWIW.

I find that with the professional pianists that I work with (and there are
quite a few) brighter is rarely the choice for their practice pianos. Most
want a pretty round and warm sound, clear and not muffled, but not what I
would consider bright.  Softer hammers have often been the choice here
(though not on a D necessarily, but most I know don't practice on D's).
They seem to have no trouble extrapolating to the concert hall but for day
in and day out practicing they want something more pleasing even erring on
darker over brighter.  Not always true, of course.  Many of the professors
whose pianos I keep at Stanford prefer the pianos brighter, but not all.
Perhaps that's because they are going back and forth between their studios
and the stage pianos more often.  Outside of that setting, however, with
most of the professional pianists that I work with I would say that I'm
generally asked to bring things down far below the level of where you 
would
expect a concert stage piano to be.  I do find that serious piano students
(on the other hand), especially those on the ascent, often prefer 
brighter.
I don't want to delve into my own theory about what that psychology might 
be
but I do see a trend coming out of one, in particular, well known East 
Coast
music school that seems to value power and brashness over nuance and 
depth.
Standards get set in all kinds of ways. 

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com



The softer hammer may make some customers very, very happy, but I don't
think it works in the concert hall, or in the professional pianist's 
studio
(or as the serious student's practice instrument). Perhaps there are
exceptions, and if so I'd like to hear about them.


Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape
it.” Brecht





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