[CAUT] Hammers

[David Love]

My experience with Del's boards is that you can harden the hammers somewhat
but you do need to be careful not to overdo it.  Dumping a strong solution
on the hammers similar to the treatment on a stock NY D would be a mistake.
But a light solution that still leaves some resilience in the hammer
shouldn't be a problem.  I would still consider adding mass to the hammer
first as I mentioned in my follow up post.  That's easy to do and easily
reversible.  The added mass on the higher tension string scale will give it
some boost without risking the downside of the lacquer effect.  A fine
polishing of the top of the hammer on the upper end will give it a bit more
shine again without the lacquer problem.  Also, with respect to lacquering
in this case I would probably try an application of lacquer on the low
shoulder where the Ronsen Bacon hammers can sometimes use some extra
support.  That will help reinforce the structure of the hammer on a harder
blow preventing it from collapsing as much and still keep the lacquer away
from the higher shoulders and crown area where it can produce a negative
outcome on this belly.  If you opt for a low shoulder application only, then
a stronger solution is usually in order.

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron
Nossaman
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 10:04 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Hammers

David Love wrote:
> Both Ronsen Bacon and NY S&S will need to be hardened as
> will Ronsen Wurzen and Weickert probably on this piano--at
> least at the upper end.  If the Ronsen Bacon that's on
> there has not been hardened I would do that first before I
> started switching hammers.  

As is very often the case, I agree with David's assessment. If 
you harden the hammers to something that will work wonderfully 
on a stock D, they will sound utterly wretched in this piano. 
Del's rib scales are lighter than mine, and I needle Ronsen 
Wurzens down, with the possible exception of the last half 
octave or so. Del's boards won't be as hard hammer tolerant as 
mine, and mine aren't particularly. I'm not interested in 
LOUD, or BRIGHT, but more in balance, tone, and projection. 
I'd rather stir the gut than grind the teeth. The endless 
"what's the best hammer?" discussions pretty much universally 
presume an unknown but accepted "standard" belly and string 
scale. Times and consciousness, hopefully, are changing.

The thing is, if you want the benefits of a good string scale 
on a functional RC&S board, it's not going to work and sound 
like the system with the shortcomings you went with an RC&S 
design to avoid.

Ron N