Bosendorfer replacement hammers

[Newton Hunt]

Hi Mike,

I would have sent this privately but the subject is of interest to all.

So;

First I would contact your hammer supplier of choice and ask for samples
bored to the desired specs (both) and check touch weight without, and
with each hammer on the shanks.  This is the best way to check hammer
weight without use of a digital scale.

I would speak to Renner, Brooks and Isaac for sample hammers.

I can bore a sample or two myself so you can check action performance
and regulation with the new hammer specs.

Bosendorfer make fine hand build pianos but the tolerance holding in
certain areas lack consistency.  Hammers are bored and hung before the
stack meets keyboard before meeting case, so a series of minor errors
can be compounded by production end.  This is not a criticism of
Bosendorfer, just an observation.

I am not so sure that your problem is going to be weight, but getting
the action to regulate well.  You may have to add some wood to the
let-off rails to get let-off where it needs to be.  You may also have to
move the hammers in and out to find the optimum location.  Do this in
each section from the second break up.  You can relocate the action a
small amount without running into case problems, but the margin is
likely to be less than on other pianos.

Careful of relations ships like;
    Hammer tail length
    backcheck height
    Backchecks to sustonuto
    Tails to wippen springs.

Wippen springs can be adjust to compensate for weight changes to a small
degree.  By today's know how that action was not weighed out properly in
the first place.  If it were my job to day I would check the front
weight of each key, check capstan location, adjust hammer weight
individually, adjust the wippen springs to evenly reduce touch weight.

Give me a call.

Love to all of your ladies.

        Newton
        nhunt@jagat.com
        732 -545-9084