Issac, Ed, and others.. Andre' went into this subject in some detail with me while we were visiting during the Easter holidays. I think as I understand his point that it is his contention that the voice of the hammer remains basically intact even through what is often considered rather severe wear. Instead of a complete reshaping job entailing re-mating hammers to strings, a complete revamp of the voicing due to more significant changes in hammer mass and exterior tension, along with all the fine single string voicing and whatever other tone building processes one finds usefull.....,, leaving the hammers unshaped allows one to simply touch up the existing voicing without all the rest of it. And, I think the contention is, with similar results in quality. Thinking about this it is not sooooo off the wall. If the origional shaping and mating was done well, then about the only thing that is really changed with wear is the surface area that contacts the string. There was an article not to long ago in the Journal about voicing at the extremes of the string marks on such hammers. I dont think we are talking about a flat top that extends 5 mm or anything, but certainly more wear then is usual to allow for. After the first reshaping then (by Andre's suggestion) and then waiting until that same amount of wear and tear again is apparent, roughly the same amount of time will have passed as what you describe in a University situation.... 3-4 years. And in both cases by then hammers are ready for replacement. Course Andre' will jump in and clarify wherever I have misunderstood him, but on the surface of it... it seems to make some sense. Or what ? RicB Isaac OLEG wrote: > > Hello Andre, > > The instruments in the conservatory are shaped every year a little. > >otech -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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