<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; cha= rset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff= f"> <DIV>When talking about lacquer vs. non, or voicing up softer hammers vs. vo= icing down firmer, I think there's a tendency to claim superiority of one me= thod over the other, maybe especially among our European colleagues. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I don't see it that way at all. Any voicing method has six goals: = power, sustain, color range, evenness, durability, and efficiency. However, = pianos are all different, as are their owners, their locations, their tonal = concept, and their amount and style of use. This is the reason that no manuf= acturer can make a perfect hammer, and the reason that we need as large a ba= g of tricks as possible to serve our clients effectively.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I use both styles of hammer, depending upon the client, the piano, and = the situation. I have heard hammers of both styles that sounded STUNNING. To= say that lacquer ruins a hammer, or that it renders needles useless, or tha= t the tone of a lacquered hammer must be either harsh or linear, bespeaks im= proper use of this tool. To say that a company with at least 100 years of us= e of hardeners is on the wrong path would be an overstatement, to say the le= ast. There is more than one rich, valid, satisfying tonal concept, and = I am glad to have access to both styles of hammer.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Some voicers are more experienced than others, some hammers (in both st= yles) are better than others, and poor use of any tool is a bad thing. = Improper use of lacquer can ruin a hammer, just as poor technique with need= les can. Juice in the right place can increase power; in the wrong place can= actually reduce it. Same with needles. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Juice raises the stiffness of a hammer (somewhat selectively, depending= upon where it is applied), but does not need to reduce its resilience, if i= t is used to stiffen fibers rather than glue them together. Needles do not w= ork the same way in the NY Steinway-style hammer as they do in the denser st= yle, but they do work. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If anyone has seen the classes that Dale Erwin and/or I taught, you may= remember our putting both styles side-by-side and voicing them to sound the= same, or mighty close. In some classes we put hammers from twelve different= pianos in one octave, and voiced them similarly. While I won't claim absolu= te invisibility, I think most people were at least a little surprised. We di= d mention the fact that a particular result might be easier either to a= chieve or to maintain with a particular hammer, but our point was that appro= priate technique, pinpointed by an understanding of what the hammer was call= ing for, could go a long way toward evening out differences.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A voicing method must do what you want, and only what you want, at the = lowest total cost.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Bob Davis<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>