---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment That kind of test is interesting. But I have to say that I can tell the difference immediately when I sit down to play a piano with either a cold hammer stiffened with lacquer as opposed to a hammer made firm in the pressing with pressure and heat. I don't know that I could tell the difference just listening from a distance, but no question there is a difference and there seems to be a tactile as well as an aural component. Interestingly, I have several customers with NY Steinway pianos on which Abel or Renner hammers were installed (not by me). Though I feel quite comfortable getting all there is to get out of these hammers--and the tone is pleasing--many of these customers can tell the difference and have remarked that though it sounds fine, it is not a "Steinway" type of sound. On some of these instruments I have been asked to replace the hammers with Steinway hammers. The tone which these people sought was recognized immediately when the change was made. While I don't know how much I could tell from an octave of 12 different hammers judiciously voiced as to which was which, no question that the difference is easily recognizable when you have the opportunity to listen to and play the same instrument when one type of hammer follows another. I believe that the "character" of an instrument has as much to do with the hammer as anything else. While differences in taste preclude anyone producing the "perfect" hammer. I would like to see something which is somewhere in between the needle hungry and lacquer hungry types that are produced now. At this point, I see hammers only at one extreme or the other. David Love davidlovepianos@earthlink.net ----- Original Message ----- From: To: pianotech@ptg.org Sent: 5/6/2004 11:54:13 AM Subject: Lacquer fight! Lacquer fight! When talking about lacquer vs. non, or voicing up softer hammers vs. voicing down firmer, I think there's a tendency to claim superiority of one method over the other, maybe especially among our European colleagues. I don't see it that way at all. Any voicing method has six goals: power, sustain, color range, evenness, durability, and efficiency. However, pianos are all different, as are their owners, their locations, their tonal concept, and their amount and style of use. This is the reason that no manufacturer can make a perfect hammer, and the reason that we need as large a bag of tricks as possible to serve our clients effectively. I use both styles of hammer, depending upon the client, the piano, and the situation. I have heard hammers of both styles that sounded STUNNING. To say that lacquer ruins a hammer, or that it renders needles useless, or that the tone of a lacquered hammer must be either harsh or linear, bespeaks improper use of this tool. To say that a company with at least 100 years of use of hardeners is on the wrong path would be an overstatement, to say the least. There is more than one rich, valid, satisfying tonal concept, and I am glad to have access to both styles of hammer. Some voicers are more experienced than others, some hammers (in both styles) are better than others, and poor use of any tool is a bad thing. Improper use of lacquer can ruin a hammer, just as poor technique with needles can. Juice in the right place can increase power; in the wrong place can actually reduce it. Same with needles. Juice raises the stiffness of a hammer (somewhat selectively, depending upon where it is applied), but does not need to reduce its resilience, if it is used to stiffen fibers rather than glue them together. Needles do not work the same way in the NY Steinway-style hammer as they do in the denser style, but they do work. If anyone has seen the classes that Dale Erwin and/or I taught, you may remember our putting both styles side-by-side and voicing them to sound the same, or mighty close. In some classes we put hammers from twelve different pianos in one octave, and voiced them similarly. While I won't claim absolute invisibility, I think most people were at least a little surprised. We did mention the fact that a particular result might be easier either to achieve or to maintain with a particular hammer, but our point was that appropriate technique, pinpointed by an understanding of what the hammer was calling for, could go a long way toward evening out differences. A voicing method must do what you want, and only what you want, at the lowest total cost. Bob Davis ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/c2/34/fc/59/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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