I've wondered about this too...someday I need to weigh hammers at 80% RH and compare them to their weight at 20% RH. Heavier hammers dampen more of the higher partials and will give a warmer tone, but I also wonder how much a tight, swelled up soundboard has to do with it. Would soaking the hammers at 80%RH every summer cause the hammerfelt to shrink and get harder? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eric Wolfley Head Piano Technician Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- From: Allen Wright [mailto:awright440@cinci.rr.com] Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 11:13 AM To: caut@ptg.org Subject: Steinway hammers/time Group, I've noticed something on our new (3 years old) Steinway D in the concert hall at Northern Kentucky University which has surprised me a, and I wonder whether others have experienced this. The piano has had rather hard hammers from day one, and I have to really stay on top of the voicing (in the winter, especially) in order to keep it reigned in to a reasonable level, and voiced evenly. I should say also that the humidity control is poor, although much better in the winter last year than it was before - whereas the first two winters the hall was dropping into the mid-20s% R.H., they figured out how to keep it up around 40 or so last winter. In the summer, however, it goes way up, as high as 80%. The piano sounds better in the summer, actually - warmer, less tendency to be edgy, and more even. Easier to voice too, although not surprisingly I've had to repin some tight flanges when the humidity gets that ridiculously high, and some dampers have hung up, etc. But otherwise, I think the humidity has a salutary effect on the sound. By the way, this piano is not really played all that much, time-wise. A few hours a week at most (the piano faculty keep it under pretty tight wraps). Here's what surprises me: whereas, as hard as the hammers are in general, I've never had trouble getting my voicing needle in cleanly to voice (which has made it very manageable up till now), all of a sudden I notice that the hammers have that unpleasant spongy feeling on the outer surface, but are otherwise absolutely impenetrable with the needle. I've never experienced this happening so suddenly on hammers that I've previously been able to easily get needles into. I'm aware that it takes lacquer awhile to completely harden, but I'm curious what people's opinions are regarding how long this can take (as long as three years?) and whether people think the sudden change of personality on the part of these hammers might be related as well to the wide humidity swings the piano suffers? Curiously, Allen Wright, R.P.T Cincinnati, Ohio _______________________________________________ caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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