Steinway hammer history

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Musselwhite" <john@musselwhite.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: July 24, 2001 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: Steinway hammer history


> At 07:22 PM 7/23/01 -0700, David Love wrote:
>
> >Does anyone know when Steinway started hardening hammers with
> >chemicals?  Many of the old sets from the 20's do not seem to contain
> >hardeners.
>
> In the 20s they were using shellac as a hardener, if I recall what Fred
> Drasche said many years ago.  To my knowledge they've *always* used a
> hardener of some kind.
--------------------------------------------------------

If they did it was certainly used judiciously. In those pre-1950s Steinway
pianos I've encountered having original hammers that miraculously escaped
the chemical bath the modern voicer can't seem to get along without, I could
find no evidence of any kind of chemical hardener being used. Old as they
were those hammers had an almost spring-like resilience to them. They were
so far removed from the rock-like consistency of today's hammers as to be
unrecognizable. It is rare to encounter these hammers today, but there were
still a few around 30-some years ago.

I'll never forget the shock of replacing a set of these old, and very worn,
hammers with a beautiful (looking) set of--let's just say
"imported"--hammers back in the 1970s. Obviously the original hammers needed
to be replaced, it was wood on steel through the top octave or so. But the
sound of the piano with those beautiful (looking) new hammers was horrible!
Since I'd been talked into buying these hammers (I bought two sets--I still
have the second) by a well-respected technician--the same one selling
them--I called him and asked for help. I was given a voicing procedure that
would have left my right arm in a sling for months. I decided that anything,
no matter how much it looked like a piano hammer and no matter beautiful
(looking) it was, anything requiring that much needling before it could be
used wasn't really a piano hammer. I wasn't quite sure what those beautiful
(looking) things were, but they weren't piano hammers.

I took them off and installed a set of Ronsen hammers. Those also required
some work, but it was nothing like what the "imported" hammers would have
required and, no, they didn't get any lacquer, or melted plastic, or shellac
or any other kind of chemical hardener poured over them. Just a bit of
sanding and a lot of cleaning up -- at Ronsen, quality control has never
been a strong point. But they don't crush the bejeebers out of their felt
either. Nor do they heat them to just below the burning point to push them
through the press faster. Anyway, the sound was back, the customer was happy
and so was I. Except, of course, for being out the time and expense of
replacing the hammers a second time at my own expense.

It has been my observation that piano hammers have gotten much harder as our
industry has forgotten how to make soundboards and scales work together. And
as it has been decided that the piano should really be more of an
obnoxiously loud percussion instrument and less of a dynamic stringed
instrument. The early piano builders would have thrown up their hands in
horror at the sound quality (or lack thereof) of the modern piano. As should
we. But we probably won't, preferring to sit around and lament the demise of
the piano industry without really addressing the reasons why it is demising.

OK, end of rant--at least for now.

Del
Delwin D Fandrich
Piano Designer & Builder
Hoquiam, Washington  USA
E.mail:  pianobuilders@olynet.com
Web Site:  www.pianobuilders.com