Hmm, maybe it's as simple as the folks in San Fransisco have a different concept of tone than Cincinnati Conservatory. Who knows about the plasticky stuff--is it possible to truly identify whatever solids that are flushed out? Dunno... Barbara Richmond, RPT near Peoria, Illinois ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Wolfley (wolfleel)" <WOLFLEEL at UCMAIL.UC.EDU> To: "caut at ptg.org" <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:06:08 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: Re: [CAUT] Getting lacquer out of hammers - follow up 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090611/d94770d7/attachment.htm>
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