Imadegawa Hammers

[Overs Pianos]

John Delacour wrote;


>. . . . The hammer I have had the most consistent and pleasing 
>results with is the Imategawa with the unshaped walnut moulding. 
>These I obtain without impregnation and do all the boring and 
>shaping myself.  Very little toning is required and what is needed 
>is easy -- and more important I have never had a soft set.  I detest 
>any use of dope.

We used Imadegawa hammers during the early nineties exactly as JD 
describes. As John says, those with the walnut mouldings are 
excellent hammers. We only stopped using them only because the depth 
of hammer felt is a insufficient (typically C88 has a felt covering 
of just 3 mm). One the other hand, their standard line with hornbeam 
mouldings are just plain trash. You can 'dig the garden' all day with 
these hammers and they continue to sound the same -  hard/bright and 
unyielding.

While our experience with the walnut moulding Imadegawa with no 
impregnation was very favourable, we now use Abel. While some have 
complained about Abel on the list, they will make hammers to the 
hardness levels required by the end user. Following a couple of 
unsatisfactory hammer sets, I too had reservations about Abel prior 
to 1996. Norbert Abel told me, at a 1996 convention, that the biggest 
problem he faces as a hammer maker is knowing the individual 
requirements of the customer. We discussed this matter with regard to 
our own requirements, and to date we have had nothing but praise for 
the product we have used since.

We used Abel hammer on our piano No. 003 at Reno. These hammers 
required very little voicing.

Ron O.
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Website:  http://www.overspianos.com.au
Email:        mailto:ron@overspianos.com.au
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