Sound Clarity for Pianist?

[stanwood]

Larry Fisher writes:

>A really light hammer won't have the mass to move the string as much,
>therefore, the fundamental will have less amplitude as will all the
>consequental  multiples, although not as noticably, since they don't have
>that much amplitude to loose in the first place.  The fundamental has a lot
>of power to generate lots of air movement.  This is the souce of other tone
>creation.  The resonance of the entire piano, the rest of the strings in the
>piano, the duplexes, the rest of the room the piano is in, the rattleing
>metal sculpture, or chandelier, fallboard hinge and one's nasal hairs are
>all excited by power, most likely from the most dominant frequency, the
>fundamental.

>Yes the piano will sound different.  It will sound really nice, mayhaps, but
>it won't have that "gotta die for it sound" when you go with light hammers,
>IN MY OPINION!

Larry,

It's refreshing to hear your sensible logical analysis which is born of
observing pianos in the real world.  I refer the light hammer tone as
"Antique".

Measuring strike weight allows us to assess hammer weight "on the shank" and
I encourage the wide spread use of strike weight as a fundamental
measurement in our craft.  Strike Weight numbers should be given when
discussing "light" or "heavy" hammers, otherwise we have no reference to
judge by.  Again, look to the June issue of the Journal for a description of
how to measure strike weight.  In the mean time I'll repost my description
of how to measure it from a previous posting on this list.

David C. Stanwood