[pianotech] Hammer felt tension

daniel carlton carltonpiano at sbcglobal.net
Tue Jul 5 22:56:01 MDT 2011


I’ve barely done any voicing at all, but I’ve read quite a lot about it, so I’m 
going to take a stab at it. This is a good little pop quiz for me, so any 
feedback would be great.

Significant or not?
Yes. 
So you took a blade and made a slice from the strike point to the core? It looks 
like there’s a lot more tension in the felt on the right because it pulled apart 
so much further; this would make it a harder hammer, less spring and give than 
the one on the left.


What do these likely sound like? 
Left - probably round, full, well-balanced tone, more mellow than the one on the 
right
Right - probably brighter, typical of a hammer found on asian pianos

How will they voice? 
Left - easier to penetrate, probably won’t take as much to tame
Right - harder to penetrate, will be hard to keep toned down (that is, if that’s 
what you’re going for)

Is it heat or the fibers themselves that cause this?  
I don’t know. Maybe both? If you’re talking about whether the heat causes 
differences in hardness/density(?) and voicing, then yes from everything I’ve 
ever heard.

Would these hammers react the same way if they had undergone the same amount of 
heat treatment during pressing?
Doesn’t it depend on how the slab of felt is formed to start with (before being 
pressed around the core)?

Daniel Carlton
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