HAMMER HANGING JIG, from spurlock

[Farrell]

What are the rules - if any - for aligning hammers (the width direction) 
with strings? Is it simply: try to get them as parallel as possible without 
hammer rubbing on one another? Or is there something else. I'm doing an 
action where the hammers have previously been replaced - and I don't trust a 
dern-tootin' thing about these things - so I figure I need to start from 
scratch.

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
>      Umm,  I don't copy the old hammer's angle, since factory production,
> (even on some very expensive pianos) often allows a less than optimum 
> angle.
> Also, on actions with hammers previously replaced , I can't trust the last
> aftermarket job to be correct.
>    I like my hammers to be just slightly (may two degrees) distal from
> perpendicular to the string, when they are new.  This allows a greater 
> length of
> time in which they are within a couple of degrees of exactly 90 degress to 
> the
> string.  As they wear a little, they come to exactly 90 degrees.  If they 
> begin
> at perfection, it is all downhill from there! Seems like I get a longer
> period of use in the optimum zone, this way.
>     Bechsteins, for one, often have dramatic angles on them in the treble,
> so I don't make too much alteration to the original unless something else 
> is
> too wrong to work with, (rare).
> regards,
>
> Ed Foote RPT