Israel, Since last December we have received 72 new Steinway grands including 2 Ds and 20 Bs which we selected in NY. During my 4 trips to the NY selection room in the course of a month I developed a pretty good rapport with Dirk and Terry who are the concert technicians preparing pianos for the selection room. The official word I got from them and others there at the factory including Kent Webb and Eric Schandall is that each set of hammers is pre-soaked before installation in 3:1 lacquer/acetone. The whole set is dipped for 30 seconds is what I was told. In the later voicing operations they will apply more 3:1 acetone/lacquer to the crown if they think it is necessary. My experience with these pianos as well as with other sets from Steinway I have ordered and installed is that more often than not more lacquering is necessary, especially in the high treble and bass. I don't know of any "plasicky" stuff that is being used at Steinway. The concert techs used to use an acetone/keytop solution applied very sparingly (2 or 3 drops) to the crown if a note needed a bit more attack but they are now using acetone/lacquer in the same way instead, at least at the factory. When I hear stories like yours I am always amazed because my experience has been so different. I have had a lot of contact with the Steinway folks at the factory over the years having taken all the Steinway Academy classes and going there for many selections so I don't think my experience could be seen as being isolated. I am very pleased with the hammers Steinway is making today and am having wonderful results here at the Conservatory as well as with the work I do on C&A pianos for the Cincinnati Symphony. It concerns me that others might read your post and think that Steinway is sending out hammers that are "pre-plasticked" and unusable which simply has not been my experience. Eric Eric Wolfley, RPT Director of Piano Services College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Israel Stein Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:29 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: [CAUT] Getting lacquer out of hammers - follow up Hello, all Some months ago I posted an inquiry about rescuing over-lacquered hammers by rinsing out the lacquer and starting all over. The piano is a New York Steinway D that has been one of our primary performance pianos - until we put a set of the pre-lacquered Steinway hammers that they ship these days. The voicing never went well, and the piano was relegated to jazz and pop combo performances and occasional accompaniment use all of last year. Before those old hammers wore out, this piano was first choice for recitals of many students and some faculty pianists (solo and accompaniment) and was preferred as the solo instrument with orchestra (we also have a Hamburg D and an older New York D) After the end of classes, Margie Williams (the other technician here, who doesn't subscribe to lists) followed some of the suggestions we got from this list and subjected the hammers to several successive rinses, following suggestions made by Fred Sturm and Horace Greely. She used both lacquer thinner and acetone rinses, since it turns out that what Steinway puts in those hammers really is not lacquer but some sort of quick-setting plastic concoction. Margie and I collaborate on the voicing. The results so far have been very good. The hammers came to life with a relatively light lacquering after the rinse - and are producing a much bigger and richer sound than they ever did before, even in the treble - which never produced much sound with those pre-lacquered (or pre-plasticked?) hammers. There are no classes or performances now, so we are letting selected students (who are ambitious enough to come practice in the summer) play this piano while we work to refine the voicing. So far the response has been positive. There is a good chance that by the time performance season starts the piano will approximate its old self with these new hammers. We'll see... Many thanks to Fred and Horace and to all who responded. And, after this experience, I am staying away from those pre-whatevered hammers. Israel Stein, RPT Piano Technician II Creative Arts Technical Services College of Creative Arts San Francisco State University
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