Walter 175 hammers

[Richard Brekne]

I agree with Dales point here, tho perhaps Del has some intimate 
knowledge about what has been tried at Walters and what hasn't to be 
able to tell based on moulding alone.  Renner sells Wurzens I and II 
with three different types of molding on request. A kind of mahogany 
called Kotibe, Maple and Walnut. My choice is always based on how heavy 
I want the hammers to be as the specific density of all these varies.

Also... much seems to be made of the choice of felt type, and yet 
nothing seems to be said of the fact that good quality hammer felt 
regardless of whom makes it means little or nothing at all if the 
pressing is bad. Thats another thing I like about Renner Europe.  If you 
want custom pressing, and custom molding shapes... thats a doable. Thats 
why I've been getting hammers through André Oorebeck these past years.  
He's done a lot of experimenting with different hammers on different 
instrument types and has a good hammer for just about any instrument. 

All this said... I have some raw Wurzen II felt, and I'd like to compare 
it with some raw Bacon felt.   Does anyone know where I could get ahold 
of some ?

One other point thats been made here that I think needs to be stressed.  
Voicing should be done in the owners locality and any potential buyer 
should be told the importance of that.  Thats kind of why I suggested 
the use of collodion.  A couple drops goes a long long way to 
brightening the sound and is very reversable because it simply does not 
penetrate deeply unless you use tons of it.  It gives you the 
opportunity to give the customer a quick look at where the instrument 
will go with a brighter sound.  Sure sure and soaking and washing into 
the core of tons of lacquer will give an end result that differs.... but 
still this is a handy trick to put into your tool bag for situations 
where you need a temporary brightening of the sound.

Cheers
RicB


    Mark
     It's really hard to make assumptions based on moldings. By the  way
    Ronsen
    supplies mahogany moldings on request.  It's called  
    sapele...or.....(suh---pee-- lee). So not necessarily Abel. In fact
    Charles  asked me about the tone of
    one of his pianos in Feb at the Cal. He was going to  try the Bacon
    felt as
    the consensus including mine was that the hammers in the  piano
    were  strident
    sounding.
      Dale