Ronsen Bacon felt

[David Andersen]

>> Dale gets my full agreement on his use of the Ronsen hammer with  
>> Bacon felt.  I just completed a change of hammers on a Yamaha  
>> S-400B using the Bacon felt and I believe it is one of the most  
>> beautiful sounding instruments I have ever heard.  I would welcome  
>> any of my colleagues to hear this piano.
>> The only thing I have done to the felt is to give the hammers a  
>> hard shaping and the tone is spectacular.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Bruce Stevens

Wow. Coming from you, Bruce, that's high praise.  My partner, Steve  
Bellieu, heard and played a Steinway "B" you had remanufactured/ 
rebuilt and said it was among the best he'd ever put his hands on. If  
you know Steve, you know that's almost unheard-of praise from him. We  
will try a set of the Ronsen Bacon in our next project, a 1948  
American "B".....

My only question with "soft" hammers is that my artist clients seem  
to need a certain kinesthetic "pop" when the note is struck to feel  
comfortable that the piano is projecting properly, and sometimes  
mellow, dark, more fundamental-sounding pianos, pianos set up and  
voiced in a "softer" mode, do not give that "pop" that makes the  
player feel good.

Does that make any sense? It's something I work with all the time in  
preparing pianos for recording----I want the piano to sound clear at  
every volume, and brilliant, even piercing at high volume, because I  
know the artist needs to hear/feel a certain "attack sense" through  
his/her fingers to feel right. The balance between clarity and force  
of attack and throaty, golden singing tone is a constant challenge in  
recording and performance. Preparing and voicing a piano for  
intimate, near-field recording AND great sound in the house is a big  
challenge for me, and I'm looking for soft high-compression hammers,  
I guess. I wish Renner could give me a truly soft set of their best  
Wurzen hammers....Baldassin and I have talked about this a lot.

I'll have a CD of some tracks from  the last two Atelier concerts for  
all you lucky dudes and dudettes who are coming to the California  
State PTG Conference in San Francisco next week. You'll give me your  
feedback, and we'll yap yap yap about hammers and voicing and  
recording and whatever.

Best,
David Andersen

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