Aging of hammer felt

[D.L.Bullock]

When I was just a student and had been tuning about 8 years, I got my first
Weber Duo Art grand.  It had never been used.  The hammers had lines and not
grooves in them.  It sounded like a freshly voiced fine piano.  I restrung
it and decided that the hammers did not need a thing.  I noticed that the
new strings made the piano sound less brassy and more mellow, by the way,
but that is another discussion.  I had my perfect grand piano for practice.
I used it an hour or two most days.  In six months, the sound had become
honky tonk and the hammers had deep grooves.  The 1923 felt could not hold
up to playing without quickly grooving and going blatty in sound.  New
hammers solved the problem.

I would say you can't depend on great sounding old hammers to stay that way
if you intend to play the piano.

D.L. Bullock  St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com <http://www.thepianoworld.com>



----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Gamble" <michael@gambles.fsnet.co.uk>
To:
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: Rebuilding old uprights


 > Would anyone on the list like to comment on the effect of ageing on
hammer
> felt?
> Regards from a black Sussex  Night. (no stars)
> Michael G (UK)