Imadegawa hammers

[Ron Nossaman]

>et al;
>  Throughout this thread many people have mentioned hammers by brand but not
>needfully by type or model. For instance Abel makes hammers of many different
>styles, weights and sizes and the naming of Abel is not sufficient to specify
>which of these hammers are being discussed....For instance in this country
>Abels may be had in the standard Abel, Abel performance, Abel Light and 
>the Abel
>made for Brooks LTD.
>The Brooks style Abel, designed and specified by Wally, is not your standard
>Abel Hammer and should not be lumped into the same bucket as such. Differing
>hammers are likewise available from Renner USA as well as other makers.
>
>  Just saying Abel Hammers, or Renner, or Ronson, etc. is not sufficient to
>identify which hammer model line is being spoken of and to disregard all 
>hammers
>of one make on this evidence is wrong. The vast differences in these hammers
>are remarkable and to preclude the use of one make hammer totally based on 
>the
>evidence supplied by just one type of that makers hammers is shortsighted
>indeed.
>
>  For instance either the Abel 'Light' or the Renner 'Light' hammers are an
>excellent choice for many vertical installations and not a few smaller grand
>installations. To not consider these fine hammers solely based on other 
>hammers
>in the line is to do a disservice to yourself, the piano and your 
>customer. My
>same thoughts apply to other makes as well.
>My view.
>Jim Bryant (FL)


Excellent advice, Jim, in theory. The problem comes in getting the theory 
into the realm of the practical. This puts us back into either taking a 
chance on a recommendation, guessing randomly, or trying every brand, and 
type within brand, of every hammer made - this year - to decide which we 
like on what sort of piano. Next year, we'd have to do it again to 
re-calibrate, or we can just adopt as a standard the first thing we chance 
upon that we can tolerate. Since we can't try everything at once to find 
out for ourselves, we use a combination of asking for advice from our 
peers, and guessing randomly, followed too often by regret. Taking such 
advice, I found the two sets of highly recommended Abel Lights I bought a 
few years back, to be unmanageable little rocks. Should have gone with 
Ronsen, or Isaac, or...? Once we have settled on a hammer we think we can 
live with after going through a number of sets that don't do it for us, we 
settle for what we can tolerate and tend to stay there because the 
prospecting process is both expensive and frustrating. Our choice will, 
naturally, not be to the taste or methods of the next tech to whom we 
highly recommend our choice, and that tech ultimately has to waste whatever 
time and money is necessary to find what (s)he likes by trial, error, and 
dumb luck. Somehow, I don't see that ever changing.

Ron N