>>Are you doing a new set of hammers, or are they old?
Both! They're new Steinway hammers, right out of the box, but are dated 5/94.
I've used laquer in the past on Steinway hammers, but I think that this set will
come up most of the way by simply hogging off a lot of the felt. The piano is at
my place getting the new action, and in a small room with wood floors and no
carpet. Final voicing will be done in the customer's home, in a rather large
room, so I'd like to use something where I can see (hear) the results right
away. Also , as I said before, I don't think that I'll need to bring them up too
much.
It's worth noting the effect of room acoustics on the 'voice' of an
instrument. We recently moved my girlfriend's 1983 L from one room to another
after buying new hammers, shanks & flanges to replace the originals. (There is
less than 1 mm of felt left on hammer 88, and as you might guess, this piano was
quite loud). The old room was relatively small, with normal ceiling height. The
new room is larger, has cathedral ceilings and wall to wall carpet. Now the
piano sounds great again. (As long as you keep the lid down)!
Mark Dierauf
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