Ronsen Bacon felt

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/2/2007 6:59:57 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
Bruce.Stevens at verizon.net writes:

Hi  David,  


What you said about "a certain kinesthetic pop" does make sense.   When it 
comes to selecting hammers that produce a certain tone for a  particular 
customer, we come up against some challenges.  This set of  hammers I used on the 
Yamaha were from a recent order from Ronsen....I think  it was better than in the 
past.  In the past, I have found the some of  the sets with Bacon felt were a 
bit soft and did in fact require some juice  (even though I gave the hammers 
a hard shaping to remove some of the soft,  squishy felt and to establish the 
"Steinway" shape.... I actually think there  is something to this Steinway 
shape).  
In my working with Ray, I have asked him to prepare my hammers with a  
Steinway style look in the raw.  
Dale pointed me to the Wurtzen felt that Ray was using a couple of years  ago 
and I have a number of sets on the shelf.  I think they are a bit too  hard 
for certain situations and asked Ray in Rochester is he had anything with  a 
density between the Bacon felt and the Wurtzen felt.  2 months ago, he  emailed 
me and said he found some.  I placed an order for 4 sets and  found that they 
were in fact a bit less dense.  I like what I see and  hear. 
Now I feel that I have some options when it comes to changing  hammers.  
I have a Hamburg B that I did a quick hammer change and installed a set  of 
Bacon felt hammers so that Chris Robinson could use the piano his voicing  
class last year in Burbank.  These hammers were soft... Beautiful tone...  But, 
too soft.  I didn't get that "certain kinesthetic pop".  I let  my children 
practice on the piano and I would occasionally play it as  well.  I think we 
enjoyed the tone but we all felt it lacked something  (the pop).  I could have 
juiced the felt and improved the situation but I  discovered that the piano had a 
radical and varying string height and I  had bored the hammers incorrectly.  I 
had no choice but to change them  again.
Before my wife Rachel and I hosted the South Bay Chapter December  meeting, I 
felt I needed to make a change in the tone of the piano and I  installed the 
newer Wurtzen hammers from Ray.  The transformation was  spectacular.  The 
"pop" returned but it was not too  bright.  
In another situation where I was going to restore a Steinway M for a  
customer, I had this individual play the Hamburg B with the Wurtzen felt and a  
Steinway M I had just finished on which I installed the Bacon felt.  This  customer 
choose the Bacon.  I completed this piano 6 weeks ago and he is  thrilled 
with the result.
In another situation, I have a customer who preparing to have his  Steinway B 
restored and he has asked to see various pianos that I have  restored.  He 
has played my Hamburg B as well as the recent M that I  finished.... He liked 
the B vs. the M.
I don't mean to drone on and on but you made such a great point about the  
"certain kinesthetic pop" and I wanted to share some of my experiences.
I found Mark Potters post very interesting.  Steve Schell has had a  similar 
experience with the Steinway D of the Long Beach Symphony.  He  felt it 
projected into the hall and the recording engineer loved it.  The  problem was that 
the artists didn't get the "pop" and eventually, he had to  harden the 
hammers.  He should detail his experience some time to those  that are interested.


I look forward to seeing you and the gang in San Francisco.


Sincerely,


Bruce Stevens




On Feb 1, 2007, at 3:36 PM, _Erwinspiano at aol.com_ 
(mailto:Erwinspiano at aol.com)  wrote:



In a message dated 2/1/2007 10:49:40 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, 
_david at davidandersenpianos.com_ (mailto:david at davidandersenpianos.com)   writes:




Dale gets my full  agreement on his use of the Ronsen hammer with Bacon felt. 
 I  just completed a change of hammers on a Yamaha S-400B using the Bacon  
felt and I believe it is one of the most beautiful sounding  instruments I have 
ever heard.  I would welcome any of my  colleagues to hear this piano.  
The  only thing I have done to the felt is to give the hammers a hard  
shaping and the tone is spectacular.  


Regards,


Bruce  Stevens




Wow. Coming from you, Bruce, that's high praise.  My partner,  Steve Bellieu, 
heard and played a Steinway "B" you had  remanufactured/rebuilt and said it 
was among the best he'd ever put his  hands on. If you know Steve, you know 
that's almost unheard-of praise from  him. We will try a set of the Ronsen Bacon 
in our next project, a 1948  American "B".....


My only question with "soft" hammers is that my artist clients seem  to need 
a certain kinesthetic "pop" when the note is struck to feel  comfortable that 
the piano is projecting properly, and sometimes mellow,  dark, more 
fundamental-sounding pianos, pianos set up and voiced in a  "softer" mode, do not give 
that "pop" that makes the player feel  good.


Does that make any sense? It's something I work with all the time in  
preparing pianos for recording----I want the piano to sound clear at every  volume, 
and brilliant, even piercing at high volume, because I know the  artist needs 
to hear/feel a certain "attack sense" through his/her fingers  to feel right. 
The balance between clarity and force of attack and  throaty, golden singing 
tone is a constant challenge in recording and  performance. Preparing and 
voicing a piano for intimate, near-field  recording AND great sound in the house is 
a big challenge for me, and I'm  looking for soft high-compression hammers, I 
guess. I wish Renner could  give me a truly soft set of their best Wurzen 
hammers....Baldassin and I  have talked about this a lot.


I'll have a CD of some tracks from  the last two Atelier  concerts for all 
you lucky dudes and dudettes who are coming to the  California State PTG 
Conference in San Francisco next week. You'll give me  your feedback, and we'll yap 
yap yap about hammers and voicing and  recording and whatever.


Best,
David Andersen 



 


From: David Andersen <_david at davidandersenpianos.com_ 
(mailto:david at davidandersenpianos.com) >
Date: February 1, 2007 10:48:39 AM PST
To: Pianotech List <_pianotech at ptg.org_ (mailto:pianotech at ptg.org) >
Subject: Re: Ronsen Bacon felt
Reply-To: Pianotech List <_pianotech at ptg.org_ (mailto:pianotech at ptg.org) >







Dale gets my full agreement  on his use of the Ronsen hammer with Bacon felt. 
 I just completed  a change of hammers on a Yamaha S-400B using the Bacon 
felt and I  believe it is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments I have 
ever  heard.  I would welcome any of my colleagues to hear this  piano.  
The  only thing I have done to the felt is to give the hammers a hard shaping 
 and the tone is spectacular.  


Regards,


Bruce  Stevens




Wow. Coming from you, Bruce, that's high praise.  My partner,  Steve Bellieu, 
heard and played a Steinway "B" you had  remanufactured/rebuilt and said it 
was among the best he'd ever put his  hands on. If you know Steve, you know 
that's almost unheard-of praise from  him. We will try a set of the Ronsen Bacon 
in our next project, a 1948  American "B".....


My only question with "soft" hammers is that my artist clients seem to  need 
a certain kinesthetic "pop" when the note is struck to feel comfortable  that 
the piano is projecting properly, and sometimes mellow, dark, more  
fundamental-sounding pianos, pianos set up and voiced in a "softer" mode, do  not give 
that "pop" that makes the player feel good.


Does that make any sense? It's something I work with all the time in  
preparing pianos for recording----I want the piano to sound clear at every  volume, 
and brilliant, even piercing at high volume, because I know the  artist needs 
to hear/feel a certain "attack sense" through his/her fingers  to feel right. 
The balance between clarity and force of attack and throaty,  golden singing 
tone is a constant challenge in recording and performance.  Preparing and 
voicing a piano for intimate, near-field recording AND great  sound in the house is 
a big challenge for me, and I'm looking for soft  high-compression hammers, I 
guess. I wish Renner could give me a truly soft  set of their best Wurzen 
hammers....Baldassin and I have talked about this a  lot.


I'll have a CD of some tracks from  the last two Atelier concerts  for all 
you lucky dudes and dudettes who are coming to the California State  PTG 
Conference in San Francisco next week. You'll give me your feedback, and  we'll yap 
yap yap about hammers and voicing and recording and  whatever.


Best,
David  Andersen 






 
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