Erwinspiano@aol.com wrote: > > > > > Again... no one said anything about NY Steinway being on a wrong > path... > nor did anyone out of hand condemn lacquering or anything of the > sort. > I DID raise the question whether reaching for the bottle of juice had > become a little too easy for many technicians....irregardless of > where > they live. Lacquer DOES ruin a hammer from the perspective of any > future needling-up. But of course it does not <<ruin>> a hammer from > some other perspective. > > >>*Yeah but Ric* if lacquer ruins a hammer then it does sound like > condemnation. A lacquered hammer done properly so it so the tone opens > up with playing time is a different way of getting the tone up. Read again Dale. I pointed out that from the very specific perspective of being able to needle up a hammer... lacquer ruins a hammer. This is true, and its undeniable. That says nothing about how to get from one place to another in some different fashion... much less draw any value judjements. > Juice in the right place can increase power; in the wrong place can > > actually reduce it. Same with needles. > > I dont think Juice in the right place can increase power... only more > tension can do that... at least as I understand the word power. > Juice > can increase volume... loudness if you will. > > >> Care to help me understand this? Really it SOunds like semantics to > me. Have you ever tried this technique successfully ? > I've done ti both ways. Power is power: defined it means volumne or > sound pressure with a changing balance of partials & different levels. I've heard lots and lots of voicing classes through the years...and tried just about any trick in the book I dont find that you can increase power by useing lacquer.... you can increase volume... loudness. But thats a different matter. > 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. > > I dont really see how adding any significant amount of any type of > hardner can avoid reducing a hammer resilience. The nature of how > felt > is made to begin with rather dictates this. If you coat a fiber with > hardner, you dont just make it stiffer in one direction... you > make it > stiffer in all directions... longitudinally as well. Not to > mention how > the felting itself is affected. > > >>> This is the conceptual point I seem to have trouble communicating. > If a softer hammer has to much resilience I need to decrease it so I > add a stiffening solution. What I need is limited resilience. So do you. > You also have limited resilience With the harder pressed > hammers because they are made with more heat & pressure actually > reduces resilience as well only one hammer produce darker sounds > initially & the other brighter & sometimes choked sounds. The harder > version usually have less initial springiness than the former. We dont use heat pressed hammers... but they do require needling. > These extremes of heat & pressure also work against the way felt is > made. The springy wool is now made unspringy or less resilience. I'll defer to David Stanwood and Andre on how hammer felt is made... but the pressure bit is kind of a hand in hand thing with the felting process. > I see stiffness as stiffness. If I have the same stiffness or > springiness with a moderately lacquered hammers as I do with a > moderately hard pressed hammer. I will have a similar tone but not exact. > I want to save that one for the next post. It's Friday after all > Regards. And I have come to think that stiffness is not just stiffness... that there are other factors involved then what a steril simplified physics concept can account for... which I suppose accounts for that little difference we all seem willing to admit. > DalePs > I want to talk tension next Dont get me wrong in all this folks... I'm not like <<down>> on the whole lacquer tradtion here... tho I do obviously personally prefer the tensioned hammer. I /am/ concerned about misuse of chemicals of course... which is why I brought all this up... but that applies to mis-use of needles as well when it comes down to it. > > > Erwins Pianos Restorations > 4721 Parker Rd. > Modesto, Ca 95357 > 209-577-8397 > Rebuilt Steinway , Mason &Hamlin Sales > www.Erwinspiano.com >
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