[CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights

[David Love]

There's another piano that I work on that I forgot about.  It's about a 200
seat hall (church), Steinway D.  I've worked on the piano for about 30
years, tried a couple of different hammers including Steinway and Renner
Blues.  At present I have a Wurzen Felt Ronsen hammer on there.  It has been
lightly lacquered from top to bottom with a mild solution.  I think there
may be two applications in the treble from about note 55 up.  It gets a lot
of use and the use ranges from solo to chamber with some very good pianists
playing it.  The piano, so I hear, has a reputation of being a pleasure to
play.  I would not call the piano over powering but it does have an
expressive quality and the live hall helps too.  It's not a great vintage
Steinway (1980's) and has some 5th octave weakness yet people seem to like
to play it.  I get very good reports from the person who records things
there and interacts with all the artists.  I ask him frequently about
feedback on the piano because I want to know.  I ask about power and range
and such and from what I'm told it's not an issue.  So there's yet another
example.  

I do agree with something that was said earlier (by Fred) that the issue is
less about "brightness" per se than range and the ability for the tone to
climb the ladder without crapping out too early.  In my experience, that
happens the best on a softer hammer when the hammer starts out just a little
under (without much lacquer or hardener) and is allowed to play up to the
level wanted.  Given time, it will develop a solid, deep foundation that
won't collapse under fff playing and kill the upper partial development.
But that takes some time and most concert situations don't have that luxury.
In such cases the choice is a firmer hammer that gets voiced down or a
softer hammer that gets lacquered up fairly quickly and heavily.  If that's
the choice then I prefer the firmer hammer that gets voiced down with one
caveat, that it's a quality hammer with good elasticity and tension, not a
hard pressed lump of dead felt.  The Hamburg Steinway hammers that I have
used fall into that category (good elasticity and tension).  The Able Select
cold pressed hammer has fallen into that category though I'm having trouble
with a recent set and so will say that with some reservation at the moment.
As far as softer hammers go, the Steinway hammer will never get to that
place no matter how much you play it and requires a heavy amount of lacquer.
That doesn't work in the long term (for me) and so I don't think that the
Steinway hammer is a good choice for a D, at least not at the current
pressing. I'm surprised, in fact, that they don't seem to alter the pressing
for an M versus a D.  They just seem to make it bigger which just requires
even more lacquer--counterproductive in the long run.  For a smaller piano
whose requirements are for less firmness it seems to be fine.  The Ronsen
Bacon felt hammer is in the same category, I think.  However, the Ronsen
Wurzen and Weickert felt hammers are firmer and will rise to the appropriate
level with some play-in and a minimum amount of hardener.  It may not be the
right hammer for a very heavy belly (Bosendorfer Imperial for
example--though I've never tried one on one of those), but for a D, if it
can be given adequate time for development, the right weight and shape and
thickness of felt over the crown in the upper end, it can produce everything
that's needed.  In a concerto situation or a 3000 seat concert hall, maybe
not, but that's usually taxing the upper limit of what constitutes "tone"
anyway.  At least that's been my experience.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Sturm
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 9:42 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights

On Mar 3, 2011, at 9:03 AM, Mark Cramer wrote:

> Almost immediately, one of our faculty pianists, who had "cancelled"  
> a recording on that piano in fall, sent me a note... "our Steinway's  
> back!!"
> Sorry I don't have time to elaborate further, I'll just say "it's  
> been a long time since something that easy made so many people so  
> happy."


	Thanks! I have read testimonials that said the technician loved
those  
hammers, but the question is really whether the artists do as well,  
whether it serves in the concert situation. Often those two are in  
conflict (which is one thing this whole convoluted thread has been  
about). I look forward to some elaboration, especially concerning what  
kind of prep the hammers were given.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm