Importance of the staple: was hammer felt (Renner Blues)

[Isaac OLEG]

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Hello,

I find the tone of Abel hammers always stronger but less open than Renners.
Indeed they surely press more, or heat more the fiber (I like their moldings
better eventually) My experience with Abel, while many like their hammers,
is that they tend to sound a little 'cardboarding' with not enough
mellowness.

Sorry if I was not clear about the Renner blue , I had one sample of one
hammer and I tried it on a piano. Of course it is not enough to understand
how to treat them.

it was not at all sounding dead, but had very low additional tension, and a
slow rebound figure, as I can see on some US Steinway (longer string time
contact)

The felt was not really soft but I felt the tension was distributed more or
less from the center of the molding all around, only by pressure, as in cold
pressed hammers, by opposition of hard pressed which have a lot of tension
appearing from the inside towards the top of the hammer since they are
needled.

I understood that to voice them you use the natural resiliency of the
hammer, I believe that the low needling can't be done extensively (as on
stapled hammers on witch you can almost transform the underside in cotton if
you are to take the last resources out of old heads.), as then when you
needle, all the fiber will react, while when there is a staple, hopefully
the inside will move more than the outside when "battery" needled (why,
because there is more felt near the middle of the hammer than on the outer
edges)

Voicing where the crown is less tensioned tend to last longer,  as being
less an equilibrium state than more European style' voicing. But the crown
being less tensioned is more reactive to string mating, capo noise and so
on. I've always noticed that on a very dynamic hammer that respond well even
to soft playing, it is easier to tune even unisons, and mask the defects in
the high spectra. if the power appears only with a more stronger play, then
more zinging is there generally.

On Abel hammers if you obtain that extra compression in the crown, you could
install a somewhat deep (4mm) damping zone near of it mostly on the back
side of the hammer, so you keep the benefit of highly tensioned crown
without the hard knocking when played medium (some knocking remains). That
will cut a bit in medium playing spectra, but can add a clear layer of
change in the sound that can be agreeable. I've seen that kind of voicing
and they are OK, the crown then is springy in a vertical plane, the "hole
lessen the knocking when the hammer deform on impact, the front high side
remain more progressive but harder, as more involved in heavy playing.

it is probably a faster method that trying to even everything while taking
risk to loose too much power. (but it is probably what you do with the
single needle)
Beside, all the hard spots remaining are reserves of energy for future
maintenance, so you can have things treated differently after that if you
wish.

yesterday I experimented on shot Steinway hammers I was about to replace (on
a D) and , using a single long needle (8 mm) I tried to find hard spots in
the zone of felt above the staple & under the shoulders but nearer the
molding than usually. It was amazing that the hammers became very fast
totally playable and round and pleasing (these where 'old style Steinway
Hamburg hammers')

The hammers even grow a bit and they could be shaped a little and used as
that for some time. Incredible is the quantity of resource available there
on these (very strong')hammers.

Best regards.

Isaac O





















  -----Message d'origine-----
  De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
part de David Love
  Envoyé : dimanche 22 septembre 2002 06:42
  À : Pianotech
  Objet : Importance of the staple: was hammer felt (Renner Blues)


  If you mean that the staple is important in high humidity areas to ensure
the hammer doesn't come apart, I'm not sure I agree.  My experience is that
if the glue joint fails, no staple will hold it together.

  As far as the hammer experiencing changes in tension, I must admit that
living in an environment with fairly constant humidity year round (and a bit
on the high side), I've never thought about tension in the hammer changing
from season to season and with it the tone.  On the surface it makes sense.
I wonder though whether the change is enough to create a real perceptible
difference, or if it does, how you would separate that change from tonal
changes that might occur as a result of changes in the crown of the board.
Difficult to tease out all the variables.

  The other question, however, still remains.  How important is the staple
for creating tension in the lower part of the hammer.  The proponents of the
Renner blue evidently feel that it is unimportant.  I know from listening to
Brooks and the Abel clan that they feel it is a crucial part of the hammer.
Isaac O's remarks suggest that the stapled Renner is a different animal than
the Renner blue in spite of the similarities in felt type.  I have to say
that my experience suggests that the Renner blue has a high degree of
tension in the felt which is responsive to needling.   The Renner hammer
used for H. Steinway is also highly tensioned, and much harder at the
outset.  My experience tells me that the needling requirements to get the H.
Steinway hammer to open up are just that much greater.  But when all is said
and done, is what you have left all that much different?  I haven't really
done a side by side comparison.  Maybe somebody out there has.  I'd be
interested to hear what they think.

  One interesting sidebar to this is that I have found out the hard way that
you need to be careful when (if) preneedling the Abel hammer.  It is very
easy to release a tremendous amount of tension into the crown of the hammer
which can make the hammer very bright and difficult to work with.   Whereas
I almost always preneedle Renner hammers feeling for some give in the
shoulders with a firm squeeze as I go, I find that a slower approach is more
advisable with Abel hammers.

  David Love



   ----- Original Message -----
    From: Tony Caught
    To: Pianotech
    Sent: September 21, 2002 7:43 PM
    Subject: Re: hammer felt (Renner Blues)


    Dave,

    You wrote

    The importance of the staple is somewhat controversial.  There are those
who argue that it adds tension to the lower part of the hammer and those who
say it doesn't make any difference.  The Renner blue is, of course, without
a staple.

    Not having a staple would mean that you cannot use this hammer in high
humidity conditions. However,
    As the hammer absorbs moisture from the air, the tension created varies
greatly as does the tone. Possibly being not stapled would allow this
increase of tension to spread more evenly over the hammer and not be
restricted by the staple.

    Tony Caught
    caute@optusnet.com.au



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