[CAUT] 80 year old S&S hammers

[Waldrop, Craig]

Jim and Del,

I have also seen many of these older Steinways that were played gently and had an extraordinary tone, with plenty of brilliance and power and yet soft felt on the hammers.  I worked on them in the thirty years or more at the Steinway dealer in the Dallas- Ft. Worth area and in their rebuilding facilities for a decade or more.  I believe those hammers are made with the old Wykert (sp?) felt.  They were wonderful hammers and the pianos never sounded quite as good when we installed the 'modern' hammer replacements.

It is a genuine travesty that we have lost either the hammer-making capability or the quality of felt that made them so good.  Maybe I'm just getting old, but I have missed those 'good ole days' even in the early years of my career!

Craig

Craig Waldrop, RPT
Staff Technician
Baylor School of Music
________________________________
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Delwin D Fandrich [del at fandrichpiano.com]
Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 8:12 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] 80 year old S&S hammers


I have observed this on a number of older pianos. Some of those hammers were almost ridiculously soft and resilient yet produced wonderful tone that should be bright enough for anyone short of the profoundly deaf. And they seemed to last forever. Much longer than the lacquered granite that passes for hammers on many contemporary pianos.

ddf

________________________________
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jim Busby
Sent: April 09, 2009 7:24 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] 80 year old S&S hammers

All,

A few months back I posted an ad by the father of the “5 Browns” for a 1939 D for sale. Supposedly it was pick by Paderewski for his final concert…  I finally got to look at the piano. It did have quite good sound, good sustain, crown in the soundboard and the right bearing in the right places, etc., no killer octave, per se, and all original except the strings, which were 6 years old. I’ve never seen a CC soundboard that old that good. Did they do rib-crowned soundboards back then? Maybe they just got lucky. Rick Baldassin was with me and agreed that this one needed an action rebuild only.

The main reason I’m writing is that the hammers were original, and although it was played hard for many hours every day for many years, these hammers still sound great! No grooves. No Lacquer. Very supple felt. How can that be? 80 years and no grooves/wear??

I kind of chuckled at all the hype in his ad, but it was kind of refreshing to find that it was a decent instrument.

Jim Busby

p.s. I think a school in Oregon is trying to buy it.