Hard Hammers

[Richard Brekne]

Hi David...

It was a bit hard to sort out your post on my mail reader (Mozilla), but 
I think I got the jist of most of it.  Let me just say a couple things 
here.  First I like Roger a lot and understand perfectly where he is 
coming from with his steaming procedure and this newer idea of the 
single mammoth needle. That said I do not really agree with this 
philosophy having tried both quite thoroughly. If you are dealing with a 
hammer that responds very poorly to anything else, well of course its 
most time effective to resort to such procedures. But if you are dealing 
with a high quality piano and need as good a result as possible then I 
would suggest also using very high quality hammers.

I find that very stable results can indeed be achieved using a hammer 
that does not require much lacquer aside from the extremes of the scale. 
Once a good cushion is built it takes a very long time to compact this 
out.  Typically one sees this when shoulder that were shaped to a nice 
egg form become bulged outwards and the crown is not only worn and 
grooved but the rounded form just underneath the worn area of the crown 
is quite visibly flattened.  The form of the hammer takes on more of a 
round ball look to it then the egg shape that one first imparted to it.  
By the time this has developed the shoulders ability to support the 
elastic spring characteristic of the hammer is banged out and there is 
not much you can do about it. The best one can hope for at that point is 
a significantly reduced dynamic range.

One needs to discern between what one wants to accomplish and what the 
user group is in these discussions. I tried to qualify my comments by 
saying in so many words they relate to high quality instruments that one 
wants in best possible condition.  My thinking is that one is best 
served by changing hammers in these situations.  Worn parts can to a 
point nearly always be made to function satisfactorily.  But thats not 
the same as functioning optimally.

That said... different voicing techniques also yield different response 
results... and if one is after a particular sound that results from some 
particular voicing method.. well by all means go for it.

I'd like to add that if one wants to pay the price in terms of  time 
needling overly hard hammers these too can slowly over the course of a 
few weeks careful and considered treatment also be made to function 
wonderfully.  They seem to need to relax for some days inbetween 
needling sessions.  If you try and create a wonderful cushion and good 
elasticity with such a hammer in one session... you'll just rip the 
shoulders into shreds and they will essentially have no support ability 
left. Of course the down side to this is the time it takes to 
accomplish.  But for the sake of interest... try this on one of those 
concrete sets that typically come stock on some asian instruments some 
time.  Work steadily up the shoulders until your voicing tool with three 
needles set at 7-8 mm goes comfortably into the felt as deep as they 
can.  Not over easily.. just so that its not tough to get them in. Never 
use more then 30 or so stabs on each shoulder during any given session. 
Wait a couple days, preferably let it be played.... and do another 
session moving upwards towards the crown.  By the time you get up to the 
11-1 o'clock area you will start hearing that familiar elastic quality 
to the sound  and can start crown treatment with very shallow work to 
finish.  Tho this is not something I recommend as a general rule.. 
(simply because of the time concerns)... it is quite instructional and 
worth a couple efforts on an appropriately handy instrument.

One last note on stability...  Treating hammers this way allows always 
for a touch up voicing using shallow crown work that can be accomplished 
in very short time. That is unless the instrument as seen very much wear 
and the surface area of the hammer needs shaping along with all the 
string mating etc. I typically spend now less then 30 minutes voice 
prepping for critical usage with well maintained instruments that are 
used sparingly 

Cheers
RicB