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

Serge Harel serge.harel at videotron.ca
Thu Mar 17 16:13:58 MDT 2011


David

About those 22 pound or 25 pound As you know it is the weight of the felt
plate on this picture it was 22 pound Wurzen Grade A for concert grand it
was the first plate I bring to Ronsen about ten years ago those plate are
standard dimension about 41 inch square and different tickness from 23mm to
30 in bass and 3mm to 9mm in treble more tick more weight more density more
weight...

The New-York S&S hammer was make with low density about the same density in
the treble that the bass but thick German tape plate.

Serge


2011/3/17 Serge Harel <serge.harel at videotron.ca>

> David
>
> I got the chance to have a new Yamaha CFX in my shop for two week now with
> budget to make it at is best action ratio 5,5 downweight around 56gr
>
> This the second CFX we got the first has a very big Weickert felt the
> second was much smaller hammer with Wurzen Grade A  First hammer head #1
>  was 11 gr
>
> The sound was so so
>
> Problem when you deal with new felt you have to learn how to press it to
> make good hammer and learn how to voice it... that could take years of
> experience.
>
> The way they do grand piano voicing in Europe and Japan was develop by
> great master 40 to 30 years ago with hammer make with Royal Felt the hammer
> head today are not the same ;-(
>
> Serge Harel
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2011/3/17 David Stanwood <stanwood at tiac.net>
>
>> Hi Serge,
>>
>> I think this is good as it has been my impression in the past that one of
>> the weaknesses of Yamaha Concert pianos is having hammer weight in the 1/2
>> medium weight zone which doesn't bring the most out of the board.   Got
>> data?  Saying 22lb or 25lb doesn't is rather unspecific.
>>
>> David
>>
>>  David
>>>
>>> Yamaha do the same now with the new CFX very very thick top felt from
>>> Wurzen
>>> and the S&S D Hamburg is 22 pound before and I think they go for bigger
>>> now
>>>
>>> If Steinway New York are 25 pounds now they have for sure more felt
>>> density that before and this is good... ( less plastic juice)
>>>
>>> But your right this not for every piano it is way too simplistic there is
>>> no one side fit all in this choice of hammer
>>>
>>> Serge Harel
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2011/3/17 David Stanwood <<mailto:stanwood at tiac.net>stanwood at tiac.net>
>>>
>>>
>>> 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>
>>> 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>
>>> http://www.stanwoodpiano.com/E-SmartChart3.xls
>>>
>>>
>>> David Stanwood
>>>
>>> "Just trying to help"
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> phone 514-750-4522
>>> cel 514-569-4414
>>>
>>> Piano Perfecto
>>> 5932 rue Viau
>>> Montreal Qc Canada H1T 2Y4
>>>
>>> Atelier ( Piano Shop)
>>> 2177, rue Masson, bureau 211
>>> Montréal, (Québec)
>>> H2H 1B1, CANADA
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> phone 514-750-4522
> cel 514-569-4414
>
> Piano Perfecto
> 5932 rue Viau
> Montreal Qc Canada H1T 2Y4
>
> Atelier ( Piano Shop)
> 2177, rue Masson, bureau 211
> Montréal, (Québec)
> H2H 1B1, CANADA
>
>
>
>


-- 
phone 514-750-4522
cel 514-569-4414

Piano Perfecto
5932 rue Viau
Montreal Qc Canada H1T 2Y4

Atelier ( Piano Shop)
2177, rue Masson, bureau 211
Montréal, (Québec)
H2H 1B1, CANADA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20110317/03f95171/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 195516 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20110317/03f95171/attachment-0001.jpg>


More information about the CAUT mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC