Hammers and Stanwood

[David Stanwood]

Dear Scott,

I know that many share your view about higher hammer weight adding a thuddy 
woody component to the tone.  I shared that view for a long time as well.  I 
have come to learn that this thuddy sound problem cannot be always blamed on 
heavier hammers and the positive attributes of a high zone hammer should not 
be overlooked.

For example:  The Steinway D that was displayed at the NE Regional PTG 
seminar in Quebec a few years ago had Top of the high zone strike weights 
yet none of that thuddy sound was evident.  The tone was splendid.  Lloyd 
Meyer even called it a "Magic Piano".  A contributing factor was that the 
hammers were Hamburg Steinway.  Hard and dense but with enough resiliency to 
bounce the hammer off the string.

Some hammers are felted enough to develop density and resiliency at the same 
time.   Hardening creates more density at the expense of resiliency.  When I 
hear that thuddy woody sound my first reaction USED to be to think about 
lightening the hammer.  Now my first reaction is to consider hardening the 
hammer and deciding if the condition of the felt is good for this.

As always the considerations are multiple...

David Stanwood


>From: "Robert Scott Kuhn" <rskuhn@ev1.net>

>While I would not disagree that it is a good thing to have Strike Weights 
>in
>the high zone in the bass simply because they do tend to put more energy
>into the fundamental (or at least the lower partials), I personally don't
>believe it is a good thing higher up in the scale.  Particularly as you get
>into octave 4 and above.  Around octave 4 the hammer/string contact time
>becomes significant relative to the wave coming back from the agraffe.  A
>higher SW brings this point farther down in the scale.  I prefer medium to
>low in this section of the piano.
>
>I think another benefit of lower strike weights at the very top end is that
>you will get a bit less contact noise or knock from the hammer/shank
>assembly hitting the string.
>
>It certainly helps to use the sprung whippens in the case where you are
>making such a dramatic shift from high zone in the bass to low zone at the
>top.
>
>Scott Kuhn

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com