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I find bothe the responses below to be excellent testimonies of techs
that go beyond the standard levels of practices, deciding to become
artisans in their own right. There are actually very many good reasons
for rejecting ready made to install hammers from manufacturers
themselves or from suppliers. About the only development I have seen
from suppliers that I find desirable in this regard is the move towards
supplying smoothed hammer strike weights. This actually is a time
saver that I appreciate. Pre-bored hammers, pre shaped hammers,
pre-voiced, pre-hung etc hammers on the other hand simply do not allow
more then a at best reasonably good result, and often enough cause more
work to get even that result then I would ever have by doing the work
on my own. <br>
<br>
Aside from all this... it is indeed a joy to do all the handcrafting
oneself. It is not nearly as time costly as many would have it once
one has practiced a bit and built up good solid routines for working
time effectively. The degree of freedom a this allows is far more then
worth what ever extra time it ends up costing.<br>
<br>
jmtb<br>
<br>
RicB<br>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><br>
>My take on this is that I want as much control over the hammers as
I can<br>
>have... Leave them long so I can get the tail length I need. Don't <br>
>want my tails arced or the cove cut either. All I need is a hammer <br>
>that has a fairly solid core to build tone with. I'll do all the <br>
>rest.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
I order Ronsen Wurzen with a molding about 1/8" longer than the <br>
longest hammer will<br>
be and trim all the tails to length after they're hung. With a <br>
'standard bore' set some string heights leave you with a tail length <br>
less than 1". This way I'm insured a tail of 1 1/16"<br>
consistently.<br>
<br>
So when I order a set, I specify, unbored, extra long molding and <br>
uncoved. The cove<br>
only removes about .3g and is not worth the effort. I've had some <br>
sets where the cove<br>
was so deep or low, I couldn't arc the tail the way I wanted to.<br>
<br>
Regulation goes so much easier with a custom set.<br>
-- <br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Jon Page</blockquote>
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