Cold Press Hammers

[Roger Jolly]

Greetings Del,
              Just got back from being away for our Provincial and National
music competition. Don Rose and I had some fun fun with the usual last
minute panics.  Three of the pianos were Model L's two brand new with
Renner blues that I matched for Concerto work. Don used his RCT and
analysed the work on both pianos, other than the top octave of one unit
that had been grossly over doped, we were both amazed at how close we were
able to match the two instruments.
  The third L is 13yrs old, and is an exceptional instrument by any
standard, the old medium cold press, type hammers with the Gray reinforced
lower shoulder, since the scales are the same, the tuning curves were
unbeliveably different. Don can now jump in, (I think? and post some
results as I know he has them stored on his high tech gismo.)
  Having the units together was quite an education.
  You know I share the same thoughts as you, why make them so hard in the
first place????  Even with what I would consider aggresive steaming of the
shoulders and medium steaming of the strike points, the same type of
elasticity can not be repeated.  The warm build up of a singing quality at
ppp is very elusive in these hammers.
Regards Roger 


>
>My question still remains. If you're going to needle those things down all
that
>much why start with a hammer that is that hard. Why not match the hammer
to the
>piano and leave the poor things alone?
>
>Regards,
>
>Del
>
>
Roger Jolly
Balwin Yamaha Piano Centres.
Saskatoon/Regina.
Canada.