hammer selection
William Monroe
William R. Monroe
Joseph Garrett
William Monroe
Dale Erwin
David Love
The answer is complicated if you are measuring in terms of brightness or even power. There is a lengthy discussion that addresses some of the issues I mention below on this on the new ptg list in the “voicing” group between Fred Sturm and me that can hardly be duplicated here. I believe the subject heading started out as “lacquer voicing” and morphed briefly into a hammer selection discussion. Might be worth reading.
It’s not just an issue of density, it’s how the density is achieved, how much tension is in the hammer, weight, and profile (how thick the felt is over the molding) in various parts of the hammer set. Of course the weight curve is important as well. How much heat is used in the pressing and prepressing impacts things like tension and can move the neutral axis of the felt outward effectively eliminating tension completely. Without tension the hammer is effectively dead, a lump of felt that can be manipulated (by manipulating the density) but will not be as stable or elastic. The amount of tension in the felt strongly influences the “voiceability” of the hammer, how reactive it is. Hammers with little or no tension usually require much more extreme voicing procedures. Hammers with a lot of tension can be voiced so that the tension release over the crown can be done in a controlled manner. While tensioned hammers react more to needling away from the crown it is therefore easy to overdo it with voicing and more difficult to bring the tension back to crown. The hammer needs to function like a spring to sound the best, be the most stable and to be responsive to voicing. All voicing is destructive to the hammer so the less you need to do the better. Choosing a hammer for the least amount of manipulation requires a careful matching of the hammer to the soundboard and string scale. There is no one hammer fits all.
Density can be achieved by pressing with or without heat or be stretching (producing more tension), or by adding hardeners. While cold pressed hammers (Ronsen uses no heat in either the pre or post pressing process) tends to produce hammers with less density but more tension, there is, what I refer to, as “effective” density which can be accomplished by proper profiling (controlling the thickness of the felt in each section). Ronsen hammers that often need lacquer or other hardeners (Bacon felt always needs it, Weickert or Wurzen may or may not depending on how you order them) can be made so that lacquer is completely unnecessary in any section. Profiling the hammer properly becomes critical here. Large, bulky Ronsen hammers will have low effective density and almost always need hardeners, lighter weight carefully profiled hammers will have higher effective density and probably won’t need anything (proper matching notwithstanding). Excessive weight in the treble is a problem I see frequently with Ronsen hammers, though this is not a manufacturing problem but one of ordering them correctly with the right specifications.
Conversely, low profile, high density, low tension pressings will be inflexible and unforgiving, overly bright and difficult to keep stable. High profile denser pressing may not have the same problem or to a lesser degree.
A careful consideration of all the features of the hammer needs to be considered along with the soundboard and string scale to which they are matched. Poor matching means lots of voicing. If you are needling excessively or adding lots of lacquer you either chose poorly, ordered poorly (weight and profile included), or have poorly made hammer.
That being said I would put them in this general order from lower density to higher density. The spacing between each hammer in terms of density, or effective density, is not necessarily equal and can vary with the model hammer. For example, I find the Renner Blue G3 hammer can have a fairly high effective density while the G4 performs with a somewhat lower density (but higher mass). The G4 hammer has a higher profile. While there would seem to be gaps between these various hammers those gaps can be closed by proper dimensioning of the hammers. Pressings between lots can also vary.
Lower to higher density:
NY Steinway (unlacquered) same as Ronsen Bacon
Ronson Weickert
Ronson Wurzen AA
Abel Selects
Renner Blue Points
Abel Naturals
Renner Blue
David Love
Dale Erwin
William Monroe
Dale Erwin
I'm just sayin
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