Renner Hammer Quality

[Thomas D. Seay, III]

>For fear of beating a dead horse (or dead hammer) I thought I would respond to
>the hammer voicing question as it pertains to the Renner hammer.  For several
>years we used the Renner Blues exclusively in our factory.  They preformed very
>well to the voicing suggestions made by Renner's representative, Rick
>Baldassin.
>
>
>However, a little over a year ago, we noticed a drastic change in the hammer.
>It appeared that the outer layer of felt had little or no tension to it.  When
>filing the hammers with a paddle, a very large amount of felt would roll off.
>Then we found that it was nearly impossible to  strip sand the hammer smooth.
>At one point we ended up ironing the felt just to improve its appearance.  And
>finally we found the hammers to be way too soft.  We tried everything we could
>think of, but juicing the hammers was the only thing that would work.

>
>The best to all of you.
>Tony Geers

Our experience at the University of Texas is quite unlike Tony's. We use
practically nothing but Renner Premium Blues and our experiences with them
have all been good.  We had one set of hammers that was surprisingly hard,
but that was the only problem with the Renner Blues I can remember.

We do, upon occasion, use a 10/1 solution of acetone and sanding sealer for
a little increase in brilliance, but we've never had to completely juice a
set to increase volume or tone.

Regards,

Tom Seay
t.seay@mail.utexas.edu
The University of Texas at Austin