(Mine have been the same. One year in and I still feel no need to voice. )

CG: You put Ronsen's on a Chickering concert grand? Are they 18 lb hammers? I would think that would be the weight for a concert grand. Chickerings of that era are super pianos.

The Ronsen's should sound better as they set in with playing. Did you say you liked the sound of the cold pressed Ronsens better than the ones you put on the M&H?

Kpiano

Yes, and they are 18s. It had previously had hard-as-rock Abels, which made the beast sound quite like a Steinway D, which is a lovely voice, but not what one truly expects from a Chickering. Regular voicing through mild sanding and needling every few months revealed the true nature of the piano behind that facade. I was tempted from all I read in PTG's forum to change to the Ronsen WurzenFelts long before I actually did, but those Abels were hardly soiled, much less grooved. When a one-in-a-million accident destroyed the Abels, I cried and pounded the floor (literally). Then the next day I ordered the Ronsens. Installed them and was back in business in less than a month. And the difference is exactly what was needed to get incredible dynamic range out of the instrument and far more tonal color. The Abels had only permitted unreliable ppp with overtones rising much too quickly up the scale to FFFF. Perhaps all well and good in a concert hall, a movie studio, and the mega-mansion and other demanding venues the piano had spent its long life in. But not what one wants for a more ordinary private home. The Ronsens make the softest playing amazingly easy and reliable and seemingly infinite shades of volume and tonal color from there up quite predictable and obtainable, with seemingly no point where even the most thundering FFFF ever distorts. The ping of the initial attack of the Abels is gone and there's a much nicer attack envelope with spectacular sustain--and all with no voicing yet at all and nothing but steady improvement on an already good thing. I could not be happier with the result. If I'd known what a difference a few hundred and about 40 hours of labor would make, I'd have made a barbecue of those Abels a year earlier. The piano was beautiful enough in the incarnation in which I bought it, but since the transplant, I fall in love with it all over again every single time I sit down to play it. With the WurzenFelt, she's a smoky voiced woman in a black sable coat with me hanging onto her every breath. (My friends don't call her my "girlfriend" for nothing. )

That was the best written description of the difference in tonal qualities of hammers I have ever read. I'm going to send that to Ray Ronsen. You might have a new job as PR man.

kpiano

I can't imagine anyone being more satisfied with the Ronsen hammers than you, CG. KR is quite right that Ray Negron will be most pleased with that 'review' of his hammers.

After the tech is here and I discuss it with him, I just might go ahead and order the 18 lb Ronsens and put on the M&H. As one of the more knowledgeable techs in another post said--the M&H I have came with cold-pressed hammers and thus, to regain its wonderful tone again, needs cold-pressed hammers re-installed.

I'm quite satisfied with the vast improvement in the Horugel, and, as KR suggests, they will improve with use and be even better.

I've got to agree with Chick about the dynamic range of Ronsen hammers. I tuned my piano yesterday, and afterward managed to get in a few hours of playing--haven't done that for a long time. I opened it up, and played some really soft passages, then pounded the living daylights out of some bass octaves. Zero distortion. Except from the neighbors on the other side of my duplex, whose screams were distorted by the thin wall between us...

Varcon, glad you ended up satisfied with the Ronsens on the Horugel! Enjoy.

Indeed, a wonderful description of tone by Chickgrand. When my Baldwin is ready for new hammers, I will definitely get the Ronsons. I also love that "smoky voice" as Chick described it.

Yeah, Ray Negron. I knew that.