<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Mar 31, 2006, at 11:17 AM, Jim Busby wrote:<FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">Thanks Fred</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000080" face="Arial" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;"></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">I never thought much about the hammers being considered. As a pianist (leave off your technician hat, if you can) when you sit down to a piano do you find an immediate difference in expression between the two hammer types, or is it very subtle?</SPAN><O:P style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">Would a non-tech pianist be aware of this or are you hypersensitive to it? I’m trying to get into the performers head, if you will.</SPAN><O:P style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><O:P style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal"><FONT size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><SPAN style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-size: 13.3333px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; ">Jim Busby</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>Well, that would depend on a lot of things: sensitivity of pianist (varies all over the place), voicing techniques of the tech, yadda, yadda. But, given pianos prepped to the max and reasonably sensitive pianists, I would venture to say that it would be a difference apparent to most. I'm not going to say that most would prefer one or the other, just that there would be a perceived difference of range of response. Personally, for most of the music I play, I prefer a well-needled hard-press hammer. Which isn't to say that I don't like a well-voiced Steinway lacquered hammer - I guess I perform and record much more often on them, and I am (or can be) satisfied most of the time.<DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>When you come down to it, there is so much variance between individual pianos of any make, and so much variance in taste among pianists, and considerable difference in prepping standards and tastes among techs - it's hard to state anything conclusively. It is, I think, quite possible to get both types of hammer to sound nearly identical. Depends how you work them. I do think there will always be tonal shadings available in a resilient well-needled hard-press that can't be created in a lacquered hammer. Subtle to some, blatantly obvious to others.</DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>I do happen to be a pianist who loves variety. I don't want every piano I play to be the same. The variety inspires me to try something a little different. I don't know if that is common among pianists or not. I'm sure there are others like me, and that there are those who want the familiar, the thing they are used to, predictability.<BR><DIV><DIV>Regards,</DIV><DIV>Fred Sturm</DIV><DIV>University of New Mexico</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</A></DIV><DIV> "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." </DIV><DIV>Bertolt Brecht</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>