<HTML>In a message dated 7/29/03 3:24:10 PM Central Daylight= Time, aquatred_chay@yahoo.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I have dug up the archives rece= ntly and have heard alot of work being done to Renner and Isaac hammers such= as "removing the staples to file away excess felt" although i have heard ve= ry good things about them. I have also read good reviews on Abel hammers in = yamaha pianos, but i am unsure of what size yamaha piano it was. Any good re= ports on these AND other hammers for the Yamaha C7s? As for the strings, i was looking at Isaac, GC and Sanderson, and the questi= on i need to ask here is which one would be easier to work with and hence, p= roduce a better end result in the hands of a novice (me, who has only re str= ung 2 uprights and a 6 foot yamaha,never anything bigger..still getting my e= xperience) and a yamaha tech who has never restrung a 7'4" mammoth in 6 year= s (two people working at once) I am aware that brand is not as important as = the quality of the job done.   Anyone who has done an older C7 up care to enlighten me on this? Once again,= my apologies for this rather lengthy and redundant query, and thanks for an= y correspondence and answers in advance!   Best Regards,   Amery Nikolai Singapore </BLOCKQUOTE> Amery The type of hammers is up to you. Both Renner and Able make good hammers. Re= gardless if which one you get, you'll have to do some voicing. But to make s= ure you get the right weight and size, and bore and angles, it would be best= if you send samples to the company. Both offer hanging and shaping, so all = you have to do is install the shanks, with the hammers already hung. As far as stringing, again, either Isaac, or Sanderson will do a good job. Y= ou might also want to contact Schaff or Mapes. And, again, it might be worth= it to make a paper pattern of the string and send it to the string maker. T= here have been so many different Yamaha scales and models, that just giving = the right model number doesn't always get you the right strings. (Trust me, = as I have had a very bed experience with this.) And last, stringing a short piano isn't any different from stringing a longe= r piano. It just takes a little longer. But if you've done a grand piano, an= d were satisfied with your results, you should have no trouble doing a bigge= r piano. Good luck Let us know how it turned out. Willem Blees RPT University of Alabama</HTML>