Hello William, I understand why people like Kent say some of what they say; to combat fear, I think. Why say "You cannot put too much juice in a Steinway hammer?" Because people are timid about doing it. Why say "You need to needle the crown much as necessary and re-juice if you needle too much?" Because people are timid about it, esp. when more familiar with the hard-pressed and European hammers, when generally those who teach how to needle those hammers discourage on the crown needling. In fact, some off the crown needling is used on harder pressed hammers to increase sound, not to diminish it, though I don't want to get into the specifics of that right now. Why say "You cannot ruin a Steinway hammer?" Because people are afraid if they add too much juice or needle the crown too much, they will ruin the Steinway hammer, and so they don't use enough juice or needle the crown enough. I don't think people are seeing these statements in that context, though, and that is part of what I am trying to say. I am using hyperbole in the other direction. I am also trying to introduce the observation for all those who decide other hammers work better in Steinways than Steinway hammers that I prefer Steinway hammers in Steinways, and I don't think with the right knowledge installing Steinway hammers in a Steinway should be any more complicated. I've come across a number of Steinways with foreign hammers installed that sound terrible, largely because they did not use Steinway hammers, in spite of all the success people posting on the CAUT list apparently have had installing foreign hammers in Steinways. If Steinway sends you a bad set, or you are dissatisfied with the pre-lacquering process and you know how to do it yourself, by all means send them back, or lacquer them entirely yourself. Good luck with whatever other hammers you use, - Ben From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of William Monroe Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 9:34 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Getting lacquer out of hammers - follow up Ben, As Fred suggests, the notion is there, but it's not the protocol. I was in NY last year, and Kent did suggest that if you "over-do" either needling or juicing, it can usually be solved by the reverse process. However, it was also encouraged that we develop a feel for how much juicing the hammers would need in any section and work efficiently with the application. Fred's post is spot-on otherwise, in terms of what NY teaches these days. William R. Monroe SNIP My impression is that for the new it's just, you can't ruin a Steinway Hammer, needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice needle juice, mind you, all crown needling, and then people complain about Steinway hammers. Another way to reduce crown needling is off the top juicing, depending on the solvency of the juice, penetration into hammer, etc. I am so glad I go to the factory armed with an understanding not cultivated entirely by the new school approach, however misinformed a may be about it. Israel, were those hammers pre-hung? Steinway sells pre-hung hammers now, and I do not know how they go about it. I am wondering how much needling those hammers were subjected to before you even got them. - Ben -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090615/e7cb93ce/attachment-0001.htm>
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