<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; " face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Dale gets my full agreement on his use of the Ronsen hammer with Bacon felt. I just completed a change of hammers on a Yamaha S-400B using the Bacon felt and I believe it is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments I have ever heard. I would welcome any of my colleagues to hear this piano.</SPAN><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">The only thing I have done to the felt is to give the hammers a hard shaping and the tone is spectacular. </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Regards,</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Bruce Stevens</SPAN></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>Wow. Coming from you, Bruce, that's high praise. My partner, Steve Bellieu, heard and played a Steinway "B" you had remanufactured/rebuilt and said it was among the best he'd ever put his hands on. If you know Steve, you know that's almost unheard-of praise from him. We will try a set of the Ronsen Bacon in our next project, a 1948 American "B".....</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>My only question with "soft" hammers is that my artist clients seem to need a certain kinesthetic "pop" when the note is struck to feel comfortable that the piano is projecting properly, and sometimes mellow, dark, more fundamental-sounding pianos, pianos set up and voiced in a "softer" mode, do not give that "pop" that makes the player feel good.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Does that make any sense? It's something I work with all the time in preparing pianos for recording----I want the piano to sound clear at every volume, and brilliant, even piercing at high volume, because I know the artist needs to hear/feel a certain "attack sense" through his/her fingers to feel right. The balance between clarity and force of attack and throaty, golden singing tone is a constant challenge in recording and performance. Preparing and voicing a piano for intimate, near-field recording AND great sound in the house is a big challenge for me, and I'm looking for soft high-compression hammers, I guess. I wish Renner could give me a truly soft set of their best Wurzen hammers....Baldassin and I have talked about this a lot.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I'll have a CD of some tracks from the last two Atelier concerts for all you lucky dudes and dudettes who are coming to the California State PTG Conference in San Francisco next week. You'll give me your feedback, and we'll yap yap yap about hammers and voicing and recording and whatever.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Best,</DIV><DIV>David Andersen </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>