New Steinway hammers... was Collodium etc

[David M. Porritt]

I'm with Mark on this one.  The only times I have used Steinway NY hammers
in the past 8 or 10 years is when the owner specifies "Genuine Steinway"
parts (it's their piano.)  The rest of the time I use Renner and face far
less work, create much better sound (my opinion) and happier customers.
I've had to dope one set of Renners (on a Steinway D), other than that it
is hang-'em, voice-'em, play-'em.  

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/11/99 at 11:24 AM Mark Bolsius wrote:

>Hi List,
>
>I've been following the collodion/lacquer/hardening thread for a bit with
>great interest.
>
>Firstly, I thought I'd share what's happening at S&S Hamburg, I was there
>for 6 weeks in May/June this year.
>
>They are still using Renner hammers made specifically for them. In the
>factory, at the pre-voicing end of things:
>-they level strings,
>-tune,
>-listen,
>-shape,
>-match tops to strings,
>-listen,
>-needle,
>-lacquer (varying ratios depending on the result required of
nitro-cellulose
>lacquer and thinners).
>
>The C&A techs and the retail techs use lacquer or collodium/ether
depending
>on their personal preferences and the tonal result required. While I was
>doing the Concert Tech Academy, George Ammann, the senior concert tech and
>our instructor, prefered lacquer but in extremely thin solutions 20:1 or
>more. His logic was that several applications working up to the desired
>result was better than trying to work backwards from too much...I agreed
>wholeheartedly!
>
>I'm not a great fan of using artificial means to prop up tone/power. I
>prefer to work with a hammer that has too much and bring it under control.
>The result is far more natural in it's tone colour and balance.
>
>Which brings me to a question I'd like to hear some points of view on-
>
>Why is it so hard to produce hammers that are hard enough? Or why don't
>hammer makers do it, there are plenty of examples of good hard hammers,
they
>just take time to work with.
>
>Is that the problem, we don't have the time, so we try to make hammers
that
>are close to what we want and that don't need copious amounts of needling?
>
>I know that Renner and Steinway (Hamburg) are continually adjusting the
>formula...too soft...too hard...too soft... to find the right balance.
>Treading a fine line...
>
>I suppose it's a result of the economic approach when you have workers
being
>paid by piece work, they complain if they have to work too hard to achieve
>the right result and the factory or the piano buyer complains if the
hammers
>are too soft to produce good tone/power, but the workers like it when
there
>is little needling to be done.
>
>I find the American approach of starting with a hammer that is too soft
and
>doping it up hard to understand...different culture I suppose?
>
>
>Cheers
>Mark Bolsius
>Bolsius Piano Services
>Canberra Australia
>
>Tuner to Canberra School of Music
>Australian National University




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275