Dear Andrew, In considering purchasing hammers you need to consider: Hammer weight Modern hammers tend to be heavy so go for a lighter hammer. The difference can be made up by removing some of the key weights. Hammer length The tail from bottom of the shank to end of hammer should be no more or less than about one inch. Boring specification Measure from keybed to under side of strings at each end of each section and the height of hammer center pins at each end of the action The lesser from the greater is the bore distance from strike point to center of bore hole. Hammer tone Bright or soft of medium. I like medium and use Abel hammers from Brooks Ltd. New shanks If the shanks are more than twenty years old change them. Brooks can hang the hammers for you if you don't want to do it yourself. Traveling and burning The shanks need to be traveled and the hammers need to be burned so they are perfectly vertical. This is THE most time consuming of all regulation procedures and must be done well for everything else to work well. Newton nhunt@jagat.com
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