<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 7/13/2004 2:02:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, joegarrett@earthlink.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>situation with current Steinway hammers. = Unless they have quit the practice of "Pre-Voicing" their hammers, the above stil= l applies. Their "Pre-voicing" is simply adding a whole lot of lacquer to th= e hammer, BEFORE it ever gets glued on in an action. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I personally, refuse to use Steinway hamm= ers for this reason. It is extremely pretentious of them to assume that they know = the acoustical preference of the customer or the acoustical environment that t= he piano exists in. In short, extremely cavalier attitude, IMHO.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It is nice that they are now, (finally!),= realizing that their pressing system needs some "tweeking". If they would produce hammers like the ones they made back in the early part of the 20th= Century, I'd buy them in a N.Y. second, but alas, they don't....so I don't.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best Regards,</FONT></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV>   Joe</DIV> <DIV>   did you see my earlier post on this?</DIV> <DIV>   Dale</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>