I've avidly followed this thread. I use Ronsen myself and have been well pleased. I'll certainly try some others. My question is this: you are all talking about a relatively expensive part and highly skilled/priced labor for trial & error experimentation. How do work this out with the customer; what if you or the customer doesn't like them? You now have a used/new set of hammers. Nancy Salmon RPT Frostburg State University MD <div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 9:40 AM, David Love <<a href="mailto:davidlovepianos@comcast.net">davidlovepianos@comcast.net</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">It depends on the piano and what the customer wants.  I've changed many sets of Abel and Renner hammers off older Steinways where no amount of needling was going to achieve the tone that the customer wanted and put on Bacon Felt hammers that were darn near perfect after some shaping and polishing.  So my conclusion and experience is considerably different than yours and I encourage people to sample different types of hammers and see for themselves.  I think they'll find that the one hammer suits all is what's "overdriven" here. David Love <a href="mailto:davidlovepianos@comcast.net">davidlovepianos@comcast.net</a> <a href="http://www.davidlovepianos.com" target="_blank">www.davidlovepianos.com</a> <div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"> -----Original Message----- From: <a href="mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org">caut-bounces@ptg.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org">caut-bounces@ptg.org</a>] On Behalf Of Richard Brekne Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 12:07 AM To: <a href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">caut@ptg.org</a> Subject: [CAUT] Abel aelect Vs. Rosner-Wurtzen Hi I think really that your post goes to show that just about any reasonbly made hammer can work quite well in just about any piano.  I'm coming more and more to the conclusion that very much of the to do about differerent hammer types is quite overdriven.  To be sure, a hammer can be made so as to be impossible, or nearly so, to work up any real elasticity...  and you do have the real qualitative difference between hammers meant to be needled and those meant for addition of lacquer. But that said if you have a decently made set in front of you, you can get them to work.  Some may require a bit more work then others... some not. With regard to hammers meant to be needled.... I'd also like to point out that it increasingly seems to me that there is no such thing as the hammer that just sounds good from the get go... and we can leave them as is.  Recent experiences showed me quite clearly that even moderately soft hammers benefit greatly (with regards to increased elasticity and dynamic range) if needled to release lower and mid shoulder tensions even if this requires a good soaking of very thin solids lacquer afterwards.  Indeed, this has become really a third road for me, and a surprising one at that. Cheers RicB    Hi All,    I was wandering if any of you have tried the Abel "Select" from    Pianotek vs. other hammers. I have put them in a Mason & Hamlin CC, two    9'2" Bechstein ENs, and several Steinways. I have found them to give a    great sound with little voicing. I have been told that from one of the    professors that played a new Steinway B at another university that    while the new B had a great sound, it could not match the sound of the    Steinway B that I put the Abel "Select" hammers on. I was also told by    all of the staff that neither of the Bechsteins sounded nearly as good    as they do now. I was just told by a guest artist that she loved the    Mason & Hamlin because of the beautiful coloring of the tone of the    piano. Just curious to see if anyone else out there has tried these    hammers and how they liked them.    Bill Balmer, RPT </div></div></blockquote></div>