<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE>  </STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY lang=EN-US vLink=blue link=blue> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006>The primary instrument under test at this time was the new Model 175. </SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006>As David says in his other posts on this topic, the Ronsen hammers with Bacon felt were by far the favored choice of the three hammers under consideration. The other two were Ronsen hammers with Wurzen felt and an Abel hammer that is the result of some considerable amount of back-and-forth correspondence with Abel on the characteristics of the hammer. It is one of the softest hammers that Abel makes for any manufacturer. The Ronsen hammers were standard production -- no attempt was made to specify anything special for these pianos.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006>The voice of this piano has been considerably harder than I wanted and felt it should have. The design of the piano is such that its voice should be much more on the warmer side than what we have been hearing. I also felt it should have a better pianissimo and a generally better timbral range than we were getting with the early instruments.</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>I was familiar with the sound of the piano using the Abel hammers and it is my understanding that Abel cannot make a hammer with more resilience, or "bounce," using their current technology. </FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Based on what I've read about the Wurzen felt I expected good results from these hammers but was some disappointed. To be sure, I did like the tenor and treble on this piano quite a lot and initially thought this might become the hammer of choice. Especially after David had spent some time voicing them down. The bass, however, still left something to be desired and David did some rather heavy voicing through the whole bass region of this piano which brought in a bit more fundamental. Even so it was still overly bright and still lacked the timbral dynamics I expected from the design. It also violated one of the goals of the trial which was to end up with a hammer-to-design match that would develop the desired power and tone balance without requiring much hammer voicing on the part of the factory voicer.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>When the piano with the Ronsen/Bacon hammers came in, we were all amazed. The bass was rich and full. I was finally hearing the fundamental that is inherent to the design but which we were not hearing with the other hammers. The tenor and treble were a bit muffled at first. But, after just a bit of light sanding over the crown of the hammers, the tone came right up.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>As I was in and out of the room as David was doing most of the work to all of these hammers I don't know just how much time he spent with each of them. But with the Ronsen/Bacon hammers it couldn't have been much. The tone of the piano came up nicely with just the light sanding giving a bright, clear treble with enough sustain to almost make me wish I'd worked a bit harder to find room for a couple of extra dampers. (Right now the piano uses 68 dampers but I designed in space for 70. Plans are being made to extend the damper set to include these extra two dampers. Based on what I am hearing now it could use 72 to 74 dampers.) No hardening solution of any kind is being used with these hammers. Not even with the Ronsen/Bacon hammers. Yet the treble is bright and clear. Anything harder would give the tone a harsh edge which would defeat the character of the piano.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>The point of this little trial was to see if we could better match the hammer set to the piano design. In this we were quite successful. It was obvious that the Ronsen/Bacon hammers have the best overall springiness/mass characteristic for this design. They can be matched to the scale and soundboard design with the least effort on the part of the voicer.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=984005821-08102006><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>One last point: I have been looking at the physical characteristics of these hammers in an attempt to better quantify the qualities of each that give the three pianos such a uniquely different tone or voice. I'm not through with this work as yet, but I will mention that that I have measured and weighted samples from each set. The Abel hammers uses a mahogany molding and the two Ronsen hammers use a soft maple molding. Their overall length and the distance across their shoulders is virtually identical -- within +/- 0.5 mm for both. Their widths are virtually identical -- within +/- 0.1 mm. And their mass is also virtually identical -- within +/- 0.5 grams (with the Ronsen/Wurzen hammer being the most massive by a very small margin and the Abel hammer being the least massive). As well, the shape of the three hammers is so close that I am unwilling to attribute any of the timbral differences we heard among the three pianos to hammer shape.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080><SPAN class=984005821-08102006>Del</SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left> <HR tabIndex=-1> <FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>David Love<BR><B>Sent:</B> October 05, 2006 10:43 PM<BR><B>To:</B> 'Pianotech List'<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: Hammer Types<BR></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV class=Section1> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We were working mostly on the new 175 but did some testing with the 190 with Bacon felt hammers toward the end of our session.  The current 190 in production I believe has been modified from the original design which </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Del</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> would be more qualified to discuss.  In its current iteration the Bacon felt hammer sounded great though the Wurzen felt hammer is not a bad choice.  The Abel felt hammers are a bit too hard, in my view, but they will respond to voicing.      </SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P> <P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P> <DIV> <P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy">David Love</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=navy size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy"><BR>davidlovepianos@comcast.net<BR>www.davidlovepianos.com</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=navy><SPAN style="COLOR: navy"> </SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>