Hammer Types

[Ric Brekne]

Hi Barbara

And a pretty little head it IS !! :)


    Here the questions that have been floating around in my pretty
    little head
    recently (ahem):

    1. Would someone out there know the differences (if there are any)
    between
    the Hamburg Steinway hammers and the hammers Renner sells in the US?

Most definantly.  But assuming the voicer did his job well enough, the 
resulting difference should be rather transparent.


    2.  Could someone speak to the differences between the Abel hammers
    sold by
    Brooks and Pianotek?

Cant help you there.... but I can say that stock Abel hammers sold here 
are quite a bit more compact and require more needling then the Wurzen 
II's I get through Andre... or for that matter the stock Renner Wurzen 
II's I've been getting lately. Seems common in Europe to approach that 
glassy voice ofte found in the Americas. Approach but avoid.  And we 
most often come at it from a needling down perspective rather then 
lacquering up.  With that in mind, my experience is that Renner Wurzen 
II's require generally about 20-25 triple needle shoulder stabs on each 
shoulder to build up the cushion in the bass... tapering to 10-15 in the 
upper treble.  The extremes of both sections  F7 ---> and D1 <---- 
usually ask for a bit of juice to get enough "ting" and power. 


    Thanks,

    Barbara Richmond, RPT
    near Peoria, IL

Cheers
RicB