[CAUT] Re: Vertical Hammers

[James Ellis]

Leslie Bartlett asked about hanging vertical hammers, in the piano, or out
of the piano.  I prefer to do it in the piano the same way they do it at
the factory.  

But there are times when that is not practical.  For those occasions, I
have made a fixture that clamps to the action brackets, and has a straight
edge that can be aligned with the center line of the crown of the hammers.
It has a separate section for the bass.  It is aligned with the old
hammers, and the positions of all the string grooves of all old hammers are
marked on a strip that's taped to the fixture.  This shows the positions of
all the strings relative to the action when it is in the piano.  The old
hammers, shanks, butts, etc. are all removed (assuming I'm going to replace
all the old parts.  From there on, I do it just as if the action were in
the piano, except the new hammers are aligned to the marks on the fixture's
straight edge - bass and treble stecions.  If done with care, the new
hammers will be perfectly aligned with the strings when the action goes
back into the paino, and the strike points will be in the right places on
the strings.

Sincerely, Jim Ellis