Voicing down is probably not a good term but certainly you are opening up parts of the hammer to make them softer and thereby developing the range and spectrum while removing the harshness, clang and clatter that hard pressed hammers too readily produce. Agreed, no expectations for out of the box perfection. 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: Friday, March 04, 2011 11:50 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:40 PM, David Love wrote: > Understanding how to work with a voice down type of hammer is really > important. If you aren't familiar with that style of hammer on a NY > D and > simply start crown needling like you do on a lacquered hammer you get > nowhere fast and it's not a very good nowhere. I agree, except that I prefer not to think in terms of voicing down. Instead, it is a matter of developing potential and range. Yes, you may lower the top end, but it is more a case of building up the ability of the hammer to produce a full spectrum. In my experience, any "hard-pressed" hammer needs a measured and consistent amount of deep shoulder needling, generally 7 - 9 mm needles, plus a profile of needling up to the 1 - 2 mm point in the middle of the crown. Then maybe you do some crown needling as well. Number of strokes determined by feel and sound. I have long since abandoned the idea of the hammer you put on and call good enough. There are hammers that sound acceptable "out of the box," but they can always be improved. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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