On Apr 5, 2010, at 4:02 PM, jimialeggio wrote: > Hi Andre....by the way thanks for your voicing book....now how about that bit on hanging hammers that you mentioned in the book??? It is still 'hanging' (; > > André Oorebeek wrote: >> In the case of older Steinways I send away the original keys and key frame to a keyboard factory in germany and I have them replace the balance rail a bit to the back. >> That gives me the right leverage I need for a brand new action. >> > Actually as I indicated in my original post, I did in fact redesign this action/keyboard to allow the use of modern weight hammers with appropriate leverages, and it worked nicely. > My musings on what "earlier", softer, lighter, currently unavailable hammers might allow this instrument to sound like was looking at the question from a different perspective. "Modern" tastes in piano tone have optimized power as if tonal power were a holy grail. I challenge this tonal assumption...actually dissatisfaction with the tonal assumptions inherent in modern piano tone inspired me to become a tech. > Having listened to and been entranced with earlier tastes in piano tone, and also having heard a very, very few modern instruments where sustain and singing tone, rather than power characterized the tone, I was curious how this piano, which geometric evidence suggests was designed with a different tonal pallete in mind, would sound with an appropriate hammer. Alas, appropriate hammers for this leverage are no longer available, so my musing continued, "what if we mess with the hammer's brain?" > > I do wish someone with experience in the Lighthammer technique would chime in here. What Andre says about the felt "excavation" producing, in a short time, a less than well rounded tone makes intuitive sense...but there are people messing with hammers in this way and reporting good results...any chimer inners? > > Jim I > Well, before we know it we'll have a fight on the list between 'preservationists and modernists', but there is a compromise : First of all, the STW with the whippen assists has an outdated system which has been improved in stages i.e. first they (Hamburg STW) got rid of the assist springs and used a hammer that was definitely heavier, and then the leverage changed several times until we now have the action we know so well. This is tricky, this development in stages, because when we measure we see different key leverages all the time (even today!) and the hammers changed and got bigger and heavier as well. To those who do not really like to change the characteristics of the older STW I would say : Do yourself a huge favor and at least buy a new keyboard with a better leverage, it is not even that expensive. Install a new action frame with new whippens and then choose the light weight Steinway copy available through the know channels. The light weight hammer will cause you to put very few leads in the keys which then resembles the very light touch of the older Steinways. Another option is to install modern hammers and voice them down to the desired volume and tonal spectrum. The bigger hammer gives us more options .. I think.. friendly greetings from André Oorebeek Antoni van Leeuwenhoekweg 15 1401 VW, Bussum the Netherlands tel : +31 35 6975840 gsm : +31 652 388008 www.concertpianoservice.nl "Accordaturi te salutant" -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100405/c189c4ea/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chair in action 4.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6058 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100405/c189c4ea/attachment-0001.jpg>
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