Dale,
It's very interesting that you're working on a M&H BB at this time, I'm taking in the same piano on Saturday for regulating, touch weight adjustment (way to heavy) & new Weickert hammers. I think this M&H BB was made the very same year. I have a few questions for you.
1, Why did you need to do bridge work? I didn't notice any problems with the bridge on this piano, should I look more closely?
2, Why did you replace the shanks, flat knuckles? Bad pinning? or just routine procedure?
3, What weight hammer did you use? I'm thinking 16 lbs on this big boy.
Al
From: erwinspiano at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:31 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Follow up report on BB Mason and Weickert felt
As some may recall I reporting that we were doing a modest face lift to a 1976 Mason Hamlin BB. The dreaded Aeolian years.
We applied two new top sections of bridge cap and rehabbed the pins in the rest of the bridge. We replaced Shanks and installed the New Ronsen Weicker felted hammers. The piano is done and the tonal results are very pleasing. The teacher in charge of getting it done is very talented young man with good repertoire and he was greatly impressed with the dynamics power and clarity.
The final voicing protocol other than careful strike weight prep and filing was embarrassingly easy for the result. In the bass I added some 12 to 1 lac acetone to the mono-chords only for a bit more initial boost and four drops on the strike point from note 9 thru 21. The tenor was three drops on the top of each up to f-3 and nada, zip, nothing from there to the top. Not exazctly filling the hammer with lacquer eh? No needling at all. Impossible?
I could not ask for better result and with minimul efforts. I've always considered that the Mason Piano needed a fairly stiff hammer and these were dense for sure but needles are no problem but presently it needs nothing. After some play in time I'll post back with a further review. I've just recieved another identical set & they have the same density, shape and weight as the first set.
Kudos to our hammer head ally...Ray.
It occurs to me that some may weary of the hammer felt news, but then that's what the list is for and also what the delete button is for.
I hope no one is snoring
You have my open invitation If you are in the area to stop by and enjoy the sound for your self!
Kindest regards
Dale Erwin
WWW.Erwinspiano.com
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