[CAUT] Steinway D 25lb felt from NY - Watchdogs needed

[William Monroe]

Interesting, David,

When I was in NY in 2010, they had the first of these hammers installed in a
couple pianos there.  Conceptually, it seems S&S NY was trying to achieve
with their stock hammers the same thing we've been seeing from Hamburg,
Ronsen, and a few other manufacturers - a higher density pressing, with more
resilience and no need for ritual application of lacquer.  At that time,
they were planning on what you now report, David - installation in all the
D's to start, and eventually using the same type of hammers for all models
in NY.  That may change, but so far it looks like they are on task.  I
didn't anticipate there would be this kind of weight issue.

Do you surmise that the hammers may reasonably be lightened to avoid TW
issues without ending up with a weak sounding piano, David?  Or are the
hammers just too dense?

William R. Monroe



On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 7:26 AM, David Stanwood <stanwood at tiac.net> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> In my consulting work providing Precision TouchDesign Specifications to my
> agent group I receive a lot of hammer weight data on new hammers and have
> been receiving such data for almost two decades.  I have a pretty good
> handle on what's normal and expected from various manufacturers.
>
> I just received a set of data for a set of new Steinway D hammers that is
> worth sharing publicly because it falls on the edge of what I would call
> normal.  The word I get is that Steinway NY has in their pipeline a new
> design for their Steinway D hammers using 25lb felt. The note from the
> factory that came with the hammers says:
>
> "Please be aware that these new Model D hammers are being delivered with no
> lacquer solution or "juice" having been applied. Fabrication improvements
> have significantly reduced the amount of reinforcing solution that may be
> required. For this reason, please apply any solution sparingly if tone
> building is required. If you have any questions or concerns, please call
> parts department 1-800-366-1853"
>
> I spoke with the Steinway NY parts Dept. yesterday and they confirmed that
> all D sets would be of this type from now on.  The Hammer/Strike Weight
> level on this one set are higher than just about anything I have ever seen
> in my experience.  They start out in the low high zone at note 1 increasing
> to top high at note 40 then top high or higher from notes 55 - 80 down to
> 1/2 high at 88.  This set of hammers has been tapered normally.  The graph
> may be viewed at:
>
> http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/D25LBSW1.pdf
>
> I have had experience with hammers of this weight level.  There is a
> Steinway D at Cincinnati Conservatory that I specified top high hammer
> weights for and the sound is indeed BIG.  It's a powerhouse piano for a big
> hall.  I've only specified a handful of others at TopHigh for special needs.
>  I'm posting here as a warning of sorts. Hammers of this weight level could
> create touch weight problems without special attention given to the Touch
> Design Setup.  Also tone issues.  Some sound boards can get overloaded with
> hammer weight levels above 1/2 High Zone.  The piano will tell you.
>
> If any of you have received a set of these hammers and would like to share
> your hammer weight data I'd be happy to produce graphs and report back to
> the group.  Either ready to hang weights or strike weights would be fine.
>  88 samples please.  With more data we can get a truer picture of what is
> going on here.  Please send me your data! Either raw data or in an excel
> sheet:
>
> Strike Weight and Hammer Weight excel sheets at:
>
> http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/E-SmartChart3.xls
>
> David Stanwood
>
> "Just trying to help"
>
>
>
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>
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