hammer change

[antares@euronet.nl]

On woensdag, mei 7, 2003, at 22:54 Europe/Amsterdam, A440A@aol.com 
wrote:

>  antares writes:
>
> << And I have a theory that we should actually not file hammers at all 
> or
> at the most just one time.
>
> Besides, when we file hammers really thoroughly, they weigh less and
> give a more shrill tone. There is less 'meat' to stick your needles in
> and it won't hold as long as you would expect.
> So what am I saying? File as little as possible, with a maximum of one 
> time
> per hammer life,
> then do a hammer change.
> result?
> Happy customer, happy tech. >>
>
> Greetings,
>    Um, in an ideal world, yes, however, there is one problem with this
> approach.  It assumes that the hammers were the optimum size to start 
> with!

Hi,

Yes I meant 'normal' hammers like the hammers on a Yamaha, a Steinway 
etc. I did not mean wrong replacements or phantasy hammers.


>
> I have seen more than a few factory installed hammers that were too 
> large for
> the piano and/or the action they were on.  Steinways and some of the 
> '70s
> vintage Mason and Hamlins come to mind.  I have weighed hammers on a 
> Steinway
> M that were the same weight as a Steinway D, so I would be reluctant to
> propose that hammer size is exactly "standard".

I must tell you that I have not seen those kind hammers on those kind 
of instruments.
We may assume that in any case a Hamburg Steinway has been treated in a 
normal fashion and thus has hammers that 'fit'.
Yamaha instruments too are very trustworthy.
I can not speak for American made instruments as they hardly exist here.

Only one time do I recall a Steinway with too heavy hammers, but only 
one time. This was in the period that they experimented with Abel 
hammers and they were too heavy.


> Also, it is not uncommon to
> find a piano on which the hammers have already been changed, and what 
> was
> installed were too large.
>     I usually file the concert hammers at the school here once a year 
> for
> their normal 4 year lifespan.  They do get brassy in that last year, 
> but that
> is the nature of school budgets.

Sure, I have 150 instruments at the Amsterdam Conservatory. All the 
hammers in the so called 'piano rooms' (where the head  piano teachers 
work) are re-placed every three to four years.
All the others we file and that's the main reason why I have gotten 
tired of filing and why I have hurt my back : I have filed too many 
hammers.

>  I also have few customers that would be
> happy to pay for new hammers every three or four years.......

It might be possible Ed that the nature of our work is a bit different, 
but I am not sure of that. after all the years of mainly tuning I now 
tune very little and the emphasis is now on action work and voicing.
I tune maybe 1 instrument a day. The rest is mainly in the work place 
and as many hammer changes I can get. So I sort of work towards it to 
get those hammer changes as it has become the main source of my income, 
inside the work place and outside.

It is like a mechanic who has become a specialist on changing tires, so 
when a customer comes in with worn tires, he obviously will advise the 
client to do a 'tire change'.

Besides, I am almost convinced that you too would prefer to install new 
hammers instead of fighting with the old ones?

Antares,
The Netherlands

see my website at : www.concertpianoservice.nl