Big Hammers

[Richard Brekne]

IMHO

Only to the degree that action compliance doesnt defeat any gain you 
might have from the increased size.   In practice I personally believe 
this limits one to a Stanwood # 10-11 curve as an absolute maximum.  
Unless you want to flaten the curve like Steinway themselves do.

For such a big hall... I'd pretty much go with a curve that starts on a 
Stanwood 10 and ends on an 12 in the treble.  Good battery voicing ala 
our freind Andre' on top of that is about as powerfull as you can get me 
thinks

Cheers
RicB

Barbara Richmond wrote:

> Hey all,
>  
> Some of you may remember the thread last spring, voicing for a big, 
> dead, hall.  Still waiting for the bureaucracy to make up their minds, 
> but in the mean time I've been thinking a lot about the project and 
> I'd like to have a chat about hammer size.  The hall is huge (3500 
> seats or so), has lots of carpet and poses a challenge for the piano's 
> projection.
>  
> I won't go into all the piano's issues (of which it has quite a few 
> and I can deal with them), but there is one area I'd like to hear your 
> opinions.  Right now, the piano (Steinway D) has the biggest hammers 
> on it that I've ever seen.  Is it a fact that BIG hammers will help 
> power and projection, especially in a problem setting like this?   A 
> friend has recommended that I "leave them big."  Some days I agree 
> with him and on others, I don't.  Of course, I won't really know 
> what's going to work until I dig in, but I'd just like to hear what 
> your experience has been.
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Barbara Richmond, RPT