I think that good hammers all share certain characteristics when producing good tone. I have put Steinway style hammers on Asian pianos with excellent results when the tone was just unbearable to the owner. I have yet to find a piano that benefited from a very hard hammer that was left hard. It is a mistaken belief that a Yamaha needs a hard hammer to drive an unresponsive board. The boards may at times be unresponsive, but a hard unresilient hammer doesn't help. It seems to be mostly a matter of where you like to start from. I prefer to start with a softer hammer that is very resilient and build tone. But I don't mind starting with a hard hammer and building resilience when it is called for. I rehammered a Hamburg S&S D recently with Renner hammers (not Renner Blues). These hammers required a lot of needling in the shoulders to get a resilient sound (and feel I might add), and some of the needling was done prior to any shaping, boring, etc.. They also required additional needling after some playing time had been put on them. But they responded very well and the sound was perfect for the instrument. Though I am sure I could have produced a good sound with a softer hammer building the tone, it would have changed the character of the instrument. There are differences in felt types however. I find Abel felt to be not nearly as responsive as good Renner Wurzen felt. When the manufacturer recommends the use of pliers as standard voicing procedure, it makes me wonder. I have installed Abel hammers on a couple of instruments as they have been touted so highly by many people, but I must say that I won't anymore. I find it very difficult (though not impossible) to get the sound to open up with an Abel hammer, more difficult yet to get it to stay open. Putting Abel hammers on a NY Steinway I consider to be a mistake. I realize that anecdotal evidence is not proof, but of the three NYS that I work on where Abel hammers were put on (not by me), I changed one back to NY Steinway hammers at the pianists insistence after she played on the piano for only two weeks, and the other two (owned by a single individual) are waiting until he can afford to do so. My choices for hammers are always Steinway on a NY Steinway and Renner on a Hamburg Steinway. They both take a bit of work, but are worth it. I also use Ronsen hammers but prefer the Bacon felt to the Abel felt. Both NY Steinway and Ronsen require some lacquer (or substance of your choice) to stiffen the felt, but I find this can be done without destroying the resilience. I like the sound of Isaac hammers as well, though I don't use them. If the piano calls for a "tensioned" hammer, I prefer Renner hammers, blue or otherwise. The Renner blue is much softer than other Renner hammers and requires much less needling. But all the Renner Wurzen felt hammers respond to needling and will open up with good resilience and produce nice tone that you can feel in your fingers (grin). David Love ----- Original Message ----- From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: July 01, 2002 7:50 PM Subject: Re: Night And Day It seems that I read sometimes this hammer is too hard, that hammer is too soft, etc. Is it not the case that some hammers will work with some piano types, and other hammers with other pianos? Such as, softer hammers might work well on pianos with efficient soundboards, a firmer hammer, such as an Abel, might work good on an older piano whose soundboard has lost some of its efficiency, and maybe and rock hard hammer (asian) will work well with an asian piano that maybe has a relatively inefficient soundboard design? Isn't that a better way to look at the hammer question? I can't believe an Abel is no good for any piano, and I can't imagine that an Isaac or a Steinway hammer will work well on all pianos. Or am I just all wet? Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: <ANRPiano@AOL.COM> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 10:15 PM Subject: Re: Night And Day > I too have found the Abels way too hard. I had a set on a 6' grand in my > studio, 10 steamings later they still hurt your ears. Put a set of Isaac's > on, a light acetone/keytop in the top three octaves and what a sound! I just > went to visit this piano at the teacher's studio who bought it from me and > everything is still fine. My first set also went on a teacher's piano, she > has 70 students and after a year they still looked and sounded like new. The > sets I have used weigh off around the break between middle and high SW in > Stanwood's chart. > > I have a couple sets of Abel hammers I think I would like to sell. > > > Andrew Remillard > ANRPiano.com >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC