Thanks for the replies Ron and Dave. I'll try to find a copy of "Theory And Practice of Piano Construction" by William B. White, 1975, for my perusal. Is it still in print? Thanks for the info Ron, I had never even considered hammer wear due to surface contact area. But I'm not quite clear on one matter. How is it that three strings are louder than two, are louder than one, given exactly the same energy input into the system? From what area of the sound envelope is the energy taken, and distributed to where, to increase apparent loudness? Are attack and sustain areas modified through impedance/mass balancing to give a similar timbre/loudness in the transition between monochord unisons and bichord unisons? I understand and like the idea that voicing is disaster (damage) control. Only needed to compensate for variations in felt resiliency/ density or uneven design/manufacturing (or even room) characteristics. Kind of puts it in the proper perspective for me. As far as the do it yourself assembly puzzle is concerned, I am very willing to see where each of the pieces fit on my own. However, me thinks there are more than four corners to the puzzle. The picture on the box is faded, some extra pieces included, and some important ones missing. By the way folks, coming from a "bleeding edge" of communications technology background, the piano technicians community is the most wonderful culture shock I have experienced. (You mean, you can tell me the secret of the decoder ring and not have to kill me afterwards?!) Thanks all, Kevin Riggs, Associate (not for long!) in RTP, NC
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