Ronsen Bacon felt

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Bruce
  Thanks for the comments.  Mine  below

Dale,  


I agree with Rick's excellent statement: In that perspective I often use the  
<<feel>> of the voice. I know that's a loaded concept... but  regardless of 
the how's and whys... there is definitely a very real sensation  of touch to 
tone.  This is something we don't talk about  enough.

  Agreed

I learned from our friend Bob Davis and Steve Schell that I want a hammer  
that passes some sort of a compression test.  As you might recall, Bob  
demonstrated (you also might have been teaching with him) a device that he  could 
insert a hammer and put the "squeeze" on it.  This should have  made a statement 
for anyone who was in the class.

  Yes that was The Everyday Voicing "Flex-O-meter"  patent still pending. 
I'll be suing it again in S. F. next week.  Yes quite  a statement. The device 
came about by Bob & I asking just such question as,  how does this work & how do 
I see it? 

Steve Schell's version of the compression test was a bit simpler to  
preformed.  He would take a bass or tenor hammer and put the "bite" on it  by putting 
the shoulders of the hammer between his front teeth feeling  the compression 
with his jaw when he bit down.  We like to call it the  "bite test".  (Oh, let 
me say that the the tongue isn't involved... no  germs! ha)  One conclusion is 
have is: Thin Nasty Tone = Rock Hard Hammer  (to the core)!   

    Yeah baby nasty tone --rock hard  hammer.  I like to judge hammers on a 
stiffness scale of 1 to 10.  10  being the rocks....1 being marsh mellows.  I 
like word like stiff &  less stiff.  It's amore useful term when talking about 
non linear felt  springs...I mean hammers. 
  The point about tone building was brought home to me again  yesterday  as I 
pulled apart a 6 ft Conover model 88 in the  shop. It's a copy of a AA Mason 
& Hamlin It was from the Bay area  piano preserve.  Barely played it has 
original everything & sound  really good.  Upon inspecting the hammers they were 
physically large  looking & barely worn. I pushed a no. 6 needle in many hammers 
& the  felt had the very feel of the Bacon felt under discussion here. It was 
amazing  & once again confirmed my belief that it doesn't take hard felt to 
create a  Beautiful tone. These hammers are probably 80 years old & I could 
shape  & voice them easily.  The piano has power & awesome sustain. In  fact all 
the potential sustain is utilized. Amazing. 
 

So many of the hammers manufactured today do not have any real  compression 
when I give them the "bit test".  Some may say that you need  this for power.  
Maybe (I don't agree).  There is some point at  which the hardness of the 
hammer core begins to kill the tone.  Steve and  I have been saying for a long 
time: "Hard hammers kill tone".
I agree with David Love's post and consider  his thoughts to be excellent.  
David takes us to the reality of  what most technicians do and that is to 
service and restore pianos that reside  in homes and not on the concert stage.  

  It's a great discussion.  I appreciate everyone's i.e..  Especially Rics 
feedback &  David Loves comments on hammer  sampling.  Davids advice was really 
helpful this year when it came to  selecting hammers for a 9 ft Grotrian.  
After thoro sampling, the  only hammer it wanted was the Abel performance hammers 
from  Piano-Tek.  This Saved me hours of sweat & very little voicing plus the 
 tone was awesome from the get go with very little needling. The concert  
assocoation was extatic & I was the Hero.  Luv it.




My appreciation to all who are talking about this "delicate" but most  
important subject.


Bruce Stevens

  & to you my friend
  Dale




On Feb 3, 2007, at 7:59 AM, _Erwinspiano at aol.com_ 
(mailto:Erwinspiano at aol.com)  wrote:


More interesting  discussion




 
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