[CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid

[Ed Sutton]

Paul-

O.K., but one question: Have you tried sliding and tipping the action to check the strike point in the first capo section?

I say this because I was once caught by surprise (and somewhat embarrassed) to discover (just in time) that the problem was not the hammers, but the strike point. Incidentally, the hammers were factory hung S & S. Bruce Clark's recent article in the Journal explains this. 

Ed Sutton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul T Williams 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 6:16 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid


  Even the worst mating of strings won't help these hammers.  (BTW, They meet and greet all as friends), The regulation is magnificent, and have been told so by many artists since this install. 

  This is a Hammer issue, period. 

  Please let me know hammer proticol on this.  not speculation on other things.... 


  Best, 

  Paul 


        From:  Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu>  
        To:  caut at ptg.org  
        Date:  02/11/2011 04:48 PM  
        Subject:  Re: [CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid 


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  On Feb 11, 2011, at 2:06 PM, David Love wrote: 

  Agreed that he needs to have things square and mated enough to get a good sense of the tonal potential.  But I wasn’t under the impression that was a question mark in this case. 

  One person's certainty that things have been done well may not correspond to another's. I harp on these things because I am convinced (from checking many, many instruments, often rebuilt and prepped by quality shops from both coasts and in between, or new from dealers) that most people don't pay enough attention to them, and don't have an adequate technique to attend to them in the precise way they require. So they go about blaming other factors for the shortcomings of the instrument. And more often than not, if it is a customer's instrument and I have the opportunity to correct them, I find that most of those shortcomings go away, not just in my eyes and ears, but in those of the customer. (Often there is voicing as well, but it is after these things have been refined). 

  Travel/square/mating may or may not be factors in this case. I wouldn't know without pulling the action and checking myself. So as a member of a long distance list, I point out things that nobody else is talking about. Of course, it _could_ be "defective hammers" (I doubt it), could be something to do with the structure of the instrument (quite possible), could be expectations that the particular instrument won't meet. All we can do at a distance is give our best guess. My point is that until you are absolutely positive you have laid this foundation well, all other speculation is premature. 
  Regards, 
  Fred Sturm 
  fssturm at unm.edu 
  "I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played." Schnabel 


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