Lacquer fight! Lacquer fight!

[Bernhard Stopper]

Hammers parameters are not only stiffness/springieness.
A big influence on sound quality is the amount of the energy that is lost
due to the hammers inner friction of the fibers. A good felt quality has a
high ability of rebounding a big amount of the input energy. It seems logic
that this rebounding ability on a high quality hammer is reduced by
lacquering. On the other hand, it might be possible that on a hammer with a
bad felt quality with excessive inner friction may be stabilized to a better
level by lacquering.

regards,

Bernhard



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: Lacquer fight! Lacquer fight!


> 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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