Pros & Cons

[Joseph Garrett]

Jurgen said: "Hello Joe,
I am aware that Schimmel used a white felt front rail punching in the 
1990s. I'm not sure who manufactured that felt. Perhaps you have 
some information on that. Otherwise, you may be jumping to 
conclusions to assume that any firm, white 6 mm thick felt is made by 
Wurzen or is indeed the Crescendo felt.

The Crescendo Punching felt has only been available for a few years. 
Since then, there have been some changes made to the formulation of the 
felt to yet improve on the quality and resilience.
I am no expert on felt - felt making is a world unto itself. But I 
have been studying the subject and am gaining some insights into the 
complexity and diversity of felt production. Contrary to what you 
write, the Crescendo felt is not "hard/firm pressed". Rather, it gets 
its density through a proprietary method of "fulling" which involves 
agitation of the felt fleeces while using special lubricants to attain 
a deep interlocking of the wool fibers. This way, you get a firm felt 
with a lot of natural resilience of the wool fiber.

This is what sets this special felt apart from other felts, which use 
heat and pressure and sometimes steam to attain density and firmness. 
A by-product of that process is hardness. Resilience is lost, for the 
most part. This leads to a knocking sound when used is an application 
such as a front rail punching.

I am constantly getting feedback from technicians who are amazed that 
Crescendo punchings can give such a defined key dip and aftertouch yet 
still cut back on key noise. Just today I heard about about an 
accomplished player who perceived the touch as "softer" after the old, 
mushy punchings had been replaced by Crescendos. Perception is in the 
fingers/ears of the pianist, of course, so who is to argue?

I suggest replacing the original Schimmel front rail punchings with 
Crescendos and try them out.
Just my biased view <G>

Jurgen Goering
Piano Forte Supply

Jurgen,
Thank you for the info and insight.<G> One of the things I looked for, when inspecting the Schimmel punchings, was whether they were tapered. They were not. I just thought that, perhaps, it was an older version of the current Wurzen front rail punchings aka Crescendo. With the information you have given me, I suspect this was an experiment on the part of Schimmel, long before our beloved Crescendo Punchings were developed.<G>
In any event, I'm going to change out the "Hard" punchings for something similar to the M&H punchings, as the client is happy with the "feel" she gets on the M&H. Personally, I'd opt for the Crescendos, but it's likely the client would be a bit wary of something that looks so much like the ones that are giving her fits.<G>
Best Regards,

Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon)
Captain, Tool Police
Squares R I
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