[CAUT] Hammers

[Fred Sturm]

That is what I remember. As I recall, I asked Del, and that's what he  
told me. Of course, memory is a shifty thing, but my surprise made it  
stick, so I feel reasonably sure that is what I was told. It was a  
prototype, I believe, first one made, so perhaps in production they  
changed.
Fred
On Jun 25, 2010, at 11:00 AM, David Love wrote:

> Are you sure it had Ronsen Bacon?  The early iterations of those  
> pianos had
> Abel hammers and they were too hard.  I spent some time out at the  
> factory
> with Del sampling some other hammers including Ronsen Bacon and Ronsen
> Wurzen but I don't think they ever put either one of them into  
> production.
> Both he and I liked the Bacon hammer the best on that piano and that  
> was
> unadulterated (no lacquer) and no play in time.  They had an Abel  
> hammer
> made for them which, at the time, was about as soft a pressing as  
> Abel was
> able to do and it was still too much for that piano.  The powers  
> that be
> opted to maintain the Abel hammers.  The issue seemed to be defining  
> who
> they were in competition with for market share.  I think Del felt  
> that this
> piano was to be an alternative to a Steinway style tone, darker and  
> warmer.
> The folks at Walter (at least the marketing folks--I think Charles  
> and Del
> were on the same page) felt that Yamaha was their competition,  
> sadly.  The
> designs are very different in terms of scale tensions and accompanying
> soundboard weighting.  The belly is very light and a soft hammer  
> does a
> terrific job with it.  A harder hammer (or a lacquered Bacon hammer  
> perhaps)
> would not show as well.
>
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf  
> Of Fred
> Sturm
> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 8:13 AM
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Hammers
>
> On Jun 24, 2010, at 8:47 PM, David Love wrote:
>
>> It's just that the
>> belly is so responsive that all it needs is that soft hammer to
>> drive it and
>> develop the full range of partials.
>
>
> 	I played the Walter grand Del designed at a convention a couple
> years
> ago, and found it very badly needed voicing down (and I like a bright
> piano). I asked, and was told it had Ronsen Bacon hammers. Surprised
> the heck out of me. Definitely a different animal. I'll be curious to
> see what the Weber he designed is like (there will be one at Vegas I
> am told).
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> fssturm at unm.edu
> http://www.createculture.org/profile/FredSturm
> http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm
> http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
>
>
>
>

Regards,
Fred Sturm
fssturm at unm.edu
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." Twain