On woensdag, mei 7, 2003, at 22:54 Europe/Amsterdam, A440A@aol.com wrote: > antares writes: > > << And I have a theory that we should actually not file hammers at all > or > at the most just one time. > > Besides, when we file hammers really thoroughly, they weigh less and > give a more shrill tone. There is less 'meat' to stick your needles in > and it won't hold as long as you would expect. > So what am I saying? File as little as possible, with a maximum of one > time > per hammer life, > then do a hammer change. > result? > Happy customer, happy tech. >> > > Greetings, > Um, in an ideal world, yes, however, there is one problem with this > approach. It assumes that the hammers were the optimum size to start > with! Hi, Yes I meant 'normal' hammers like the hammers on a Yamaha, a Steinway etc. I did not mean wrong replacements or phantasy hammers. > > I have seen more than a few factory installed hammers that were too > large for > the piano and/or the action they were on. Steinways and some of the > '70s > vintage Mason and Hamlins come to mind. I have weighed hammers on a > Steinway > M that were the same weight as a Steinway D, so I would be reluctant to > propose that hammer size is exactly "standard". I must tell you that I have not seen those kind hammers on those kind of instruments. We may assume that in any case a Hamburg Steinway has been treated in a normal fashion and thus has hammers that 'fit'. Yamaha instruments too are very trustworthy. I can not speak for American made instruments as they hardly exist here. Only one time do I recall a Steinway with too heavy hammers, but only one time. This was in the period that they experimented with Abel hammers and they were too heavy. > Also, it is not uncommon to > find a piano on which the hammers have already been changed, and what > was > installed were too large. > I usually file the concert hammers at the school here once a year > for > their normal 4 year lifespan. They do get brassy in that last year, > but that > is the nature of school budgets. Sure, I have 150 instruments at the Amsterdam Conservatory. All the hammers in the so called 'piano rooms' (where the head piano teachers work) are re-placed every three to four years. All the others we file and that's the main reason why I have gotten tired of filing and why I have hurt my back : I have filed too many hammers. > I also have few customers that would be > happy to pay for new hammers every three or four years....... It might be possible Ed that the nature of our work is a bit different, but I am not sure of that. after all the years of mainly tuning I now tune very little and the emphasis is now on action work and voicing. I tune maybe 1 instrument a day. The rest is mainly in the work place and as many hammer changes I can get. So I sort of work towards it to get those hammer changes as it has become the main source of my income, inside the work place and outside. It is like a mechanic who has become a specialist on changing tires, so when a customer comes in with worn tires, he obviously will advise the client to do a 'tire change'. Besides, I am almost convinced that you too would prefer to install new hammers instead of fighting with the old ones? Antares, The Netherlands see my website at : www.concertpianoservice.nl
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