A question about hammer construction

[Farrell]

MessageSo, like, those mean, green, Aeolian hammers on all sorts of pianos of ill repute should be respected in some way?

Hmmmmm. Don't think so.

Different color core felt doesn't mean doggie doo.

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message ----- 

  This afternoon, after store hours, I asked a salesman at the store I work at one day a week about the way he describes hammer construction and performance to his customers. Basically he is telling customers that the colored section next to the wood is a second layer that makes the hammer harder, (or whatever), and that the multiple layered hammers perform better, last longer and are subsequently more expensive and therefore only found on pianos that cost a little more. Single layer hammers, (solid white), on the other hand, are softer, don't perform as well and wear out quicker.

  I shared with him that I seem to remember "learning" somewhere that the colored section was, functionally, simply that. A colored section. That the coloring of that section was used to identify hammers made to certain specifications and/or for certain buyers. Also, that hammers with that colored layer were only found in pianos whose manufacturers went to the trouble to actually define those characteristics to the hammer manufacturer. 

  The fact that the colored layer hammers are only found in the slightly more expensive better made pianos is a given. As is the fact that the colored layer also usually indicates a higher quality hammer. My conversation with this salesman was not an argument. I was just curious and was hoping to learn something. But at the end of our conversation we both had the same questions:

  : Is that colored section actually a second layer? (We could not tell by feeling it.)
  : Is that colored section, or second layer, actually functionally different than the rest of the hammer? 
  : In other words, does it actually do more than merely act as an identifier for the characteristics of that hammer?

  The way he describes hammers to the customer probably doesn't require change. Simplifying things for the average customer is not necessarily a bad thing. We just want to know for ourselves. 

  -- Geoff Sykes
  -- Assoc. Los Angeles
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