Hi Ric, Well, yet another hole in my training and decades of experience uncovered! Regards, Alan Eder RPT In a message dated 8/30/2006 3:04:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Ric Brekne <ricbrek at broadpark.no> writes: >Hi > >This is something David Stanwood has been doing for many years, and is >part of his bag of tools for diagnosing what a pianist / owner wants >when a hammer change is to be executed. That adding (or subtracting) to >the mass that hits the strings can and does affect tone really should be >no suprise at this point. The basic knowledge goes back as far as the >quandry about using heavy hammers vs light hammers goes. Nigh on 20 >years ago now Ed McMorrow launched his controversial Light Hammer >philosophy which took light hammers to new extremes. Stanwoods >Strikeweight Ratio methodology directly employs the use of non felt or >wood mass to the hammers as part of evening strikeweights, and I've >found this technique employed in very old pianos. > >I get the feeling ofte times that much of what is known in our trade >gets lost in the maze as it were since there is no real or very little >formalized schooling for new technicians. Of that what does exist >students are expedited through very short programs. One is lucky to find >more then 2 years study line anywhere. Coupled with the fact that we are >after all so very few in the world and our numbers are not sufficient to >support a library of published works in all major languages.. its >probably a hopeless cause to try and keep all knowledge that should be >kept current, current. > >Cheers >RicB > >........... > >This technique has been covered in convention classes before: A >Bosendorfer voicing class and Richard Davenport’s “Prelude to Hammer >Replacement” come to mind. (Davenport mentioned extensive use of shank >clips as an alternative to doing nothing at all in situations where >hammer replacement and all that should go with it are not an option for >economic reasons.) In our recent experience at CalArts we had such >dramatic feedback that we felt compelled to offer our testimonial. Does >this scenario ring a bell for any others out there? > >Thanks, >
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