Dear Andre The New felt has been under proprietary wraps until now. Not even Renner in Germany knew till just lately. Jack, Ray & I have been working on this for quite a while now. Hi Dale and Listers, Except from this list, I have not yet heard about the new "Weickert Special by Wurzen" here in Europe. I find that strange. I will of course ask Renner, traditionally the Wurzen felt hammer maker. I wonder about the hardness of this Weickert Special? These last years new Wurzen felt hammers were a bit soft. I have learned how to solve that problem, but I have asked Renner Europe to do something about that. I am a bit afraid that this new top quality felt might be too soft as well. I assure you, it is not soft in terms you describe. If it were, the testors & I would not be getting this gorgeous tone from the beginning with hammers pressed far differently than what you're accustomed to. It is like nothing I've used before. The fiber interlocking is the key. It gains it's natural hardness by true tension & compression, something that in the art of hammer making that has been forgotten or lost or perhaps misunderstood. You could instruct Renner Germany to press it however suits you when it become available to them as you have that relationship with them. We are in agreement that Jack Brand's felt is the best hammer felt in the world I therefore am happy with my Wurzen A from Renner. I am of course curious though and open to try it out. I will contact Jack Brand and Renner. Good. will enjoy your feedback Kindest regards...as always Dale Erwin friendly greetings from André Oorebeek Antoni van Leeuwenhoekweg 15 1401 VW, Bussum the Netherlands tel : +31 35=2 06975840 gsm : +31 652 388008 "where Music is, no harm can be" On Oct 16, 2008, at 3:00 AM, erwinspiano at aol.com wrote: Hi Andre Good to hear from you on this as I know you have championed the cause of excellent feltand have been a staunch proponent of properly pressed hammers. Both as you say is so important. It's nice to know Renner makes a hammer you can work with there. Renner USA in the states has also been a long and trusted supporter of Wurzen Felt co. & the Brand family. In fact, from the very beginning Lloyd Meyer Of Renner U.S.A. signed up with Jack to reintroduce the quality felt made in that plant. The Quality of The Renner USA product shows the Commitment of Lloyd & Donna Meyer to this endeavor. We are directly and indirectly in there debt as they were one of Jacks first clients when the plant reopened in 1992. Consequently Jack has passionately pursued the making of Fine Hammer felt using20many of the original J.D Weickert co. formulas and protocols. The Wurzen made felts have been called thus far and are Known by th e felt grades of... Wurzen.. A ... and AA. I want to be clear that this latest iteration is known by the now trademarked name the "Weickert special by Wurzen" and is a fairly dramatic shift up the quality line in terms of felt science and technology. In fact Ray,Jack and I discoverd that it is so dramatically different that w e decided it required this name. All the Hammer felts Wurzen makes are fine quality and this new Weickert special by Wurzen gives us another huge compliment to our tonal arsenals & huge a move toward the future of a more musical piano tone. I will truthfully say that Jack is a true artisan felt maker who is also as equally passionate about this endeavor as technicians. This strkies me as odd because Jacks Wurzen co. make so many felt products and hammer felt is small part of the felt making operation. Yet, he loves it. You know...we are all passionate about something. Jacks is felt & ours is tone My Friends we have a true ally in our business & he is my friend, Jack . My only regret is we didn't meet sooner. Perhaps we can get him to teach at our conventions more frequently. &nbs p; Andre, I'm looking forward to getting a copy of your voicing book. WHen does it come out? Dale Erwin You guys seem to forget that Renner makes very beautiful hammers here in Europe, with.. Wurzen felt. I have been in contact with=2 0Jack Brand for a long time, and I have followed the development of his 'Wurzen felt' right from the start, after the reunion of the two Germany's. I have had this fantastic felt for a=2 0long time now and I never ever want any other felt. Because of my age, (I am 59) I am a typical example of a generation that was forced to learn voicing with the felt that was for sale as an alternative for the Weickert felt, simply because the Weickert felt was not produced anymore after the Soviets entered East Germany. Getting acquainted with the 'new' Wurzen felt was a surprising discovery! even though it was in its early stages of development after all those years. I have actually learned to voice this renewed Weickert felt, which was named Wurzen felt after the town where it is made (Wurzen), at Yamaha, because they were, I guess, one of the very first ones (together with Steinway, to use the new Wurzen felt on their CFIII-S. I do not really like the AA standard because it is, according to me, too dense and too heavy, and it takes much longer to voice than the single A standard which is my favorite. The real secret of having a fine success with these hammers is : 1. the quality of the wool 2. the quality of the felt 3. the quality of the hammer maker 4. the quality of the technician I have been able to influence Renner to make a hammer for me, according to my taste. That makes all the difference! and that is , I guess, is what Ray Negron is doing. He (Ray Negron)20told me that his father used Weickert felt in the old days. Because of our contact, years ago, and through the willingness of Jack Brand, the Weickert/Wurzen felt came back to Ronsen and back to the US. friendly greetings from André Oorebeek = -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081017/b497ea48/attachment-0001.html
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