I notice the Abel Neutral hammers often referred to as "Wallys naturals". Now that he's not running the company anymore, why does this persist? Melanie, his very capable daughter is running it, so shouldn't the the hammers be called Melanies Naturals.....naturally? :)
AS I read posts like this routinely I am kind of befuddled. So many hammer makers issue us hammers with a hard knot of felt, which is ever present over the top of the molding. This feature characterizes firmer pressing of hammers all over the planet and they tend to be high in maintenance thereby consuming precious school budgets which are.....increasingly scarce. I realize there are many specific situations and reasons why we use a particular type of hammer, including me and I have sometimes chosen poorly.
It is a fact that, the technical definition of a piano hammer is a non-linear felt spring (See five lecture on the acoustics of the piano.) Yet primarily many hammers more resemble the consistency of buffing wheels. Or cotton balls filled with lacquer. And we are expected to make them work and hold up? Really?
In my opinion there only a few hammers made currently in the world that fit the true model of this description. 2 in this country, 2 in Canada and sometimes by happy accident....China. There may be others elsewhere but I am unaware of them. And there may be some well known brand of pianos where the pendulum is swinging back the other way but am unclear which ones at this moment.
For 25 years I have observed with keen interest the hammer wear in institutional settings. Routinely these ahmmers are infected with deafening earsplitting sounds in practice rooms, and breaking strings with in very short periods of time etc. In light of this I ask, should we really embrace the predominate styles of hammer for high use institutional settings, especially practice rooms?
There is, without a doubt, in my mind ,that hammers acting as a felt spring have a much greater ability to maintain a musical tone & provide precious voicing stability with out massive amounts of needling or much anything else.
The resistance to this idea /reality is especially perplexing and have not heard many support it. Is it possible to over look the pianos in our care that are not being problems in high use situations? Do we ask, why are these hammers holding up and still sounding musical, and others not? hmmm.
Considering the problematic nature of hot/ hard pressed hammers in high use situations, does it not make sense to consider a different hammer choice and experience this for oneself?
Professionally speaking , I am tonally and musically driven and value both my hearing and the music as you all do. I value the same for the students and teachers I serve and it is why I take the risk to state this premise clearly and passionately.
The fact that I possess a bias is not for nothing and not because I am involved deeply with the Ronsen hammer brand. It is primarily for the reasons outlined in this post....and..... I Love music
Regards
Dale Erwin-Heritic at large
www.Erwinspiano.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Thu, Mar 3, 2011 1:52 pm
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Fwd: Steinway sound-Hammer weights
Hi Dave,
You're exactly right! No matterwhat 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, andthe other has her own personal Yam c-7. It would be a nearly fulltime job to keep them in great tune, regulation, and voiced properly. Theyam is the yam and since it's hers, can do very little. The M's are niceand not played hard, the L is likewise not pounded on, but played regularlyand 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 inthe capo, but the Sty with the Sty hammers has busted 4 bass strings in2 years. His pianos have a set of regular Sty hammers and the otherhas a set of Wallys Naturals. Both break strings about the same. The otherprof has NY hammers on both, but not as hard a player. I rarely fix brokenstrings there.
I try to watch the regulation closelyas I can, but I fear if I back off the let off and drop, they'll complainthat pp or ppp is impossible to control.
They are bright! I'll voice themdown, but it only lasts a couple months. I can see how that wouldtire 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-Hammerweights
When I was working at SMU the piano teachers witha 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 teacherwith 55 years of
experience there stated: "...you can't listen to 4 or 5 hours of abright
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 apiano
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). Thegroup
of 5 or 6 professional pianists and teachers ended up choosing a Wurzenfelt
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 thena
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 withthe
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 ratherlive
though. Just one example. Personally, I find that Steinwaya 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 andthis
group of pianists, FWIW.
I find that with the professional pianists that I work with (and thereare
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 whatI
would consider bright. Softer hammers have often been the choicehere
(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 forday
in and day out practicing they want something more pleasing even erringon
darker over brighter. Not always true, of course. Many of theprofessors
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 pianostudents
(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 mightbe
but I do see a trend coming out of one, in particular, well known EastCoast
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 whichto shape
it.” Brecht
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20110306/8a6c0b77/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC