<DIV> Richard, "The hammers with less friction will spend a slightly less amount of time on the string. The more tightly pinned ones will stay on a microsecond longer dampening out the highest partials." O.k. you nailed me on this one : ) I have to admit I didn't intend my "microsecond" in any sort of scientific way. What I should have said is "The more tightly pinned ones will stay on the string a tiny fraction of a second longer. Thanks for calling me on my sloppy semantics! : ) And no, this is not based on any scientific measurements but on my own intellectual model of what's happening. Obviously a hammer that has 1/4 swing will stay on the string longer than one that swings 20 times. Agreed? Lastly, we all have seen hammers that swing 4-7 times that have excessive side play. So we should not be dependant on swings to gauge bushing firmness. sliding a staight edge back and forth under the shanks quickly shows the flanges with excessive side play. </DIV> Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Pianova Piano Service Olympia, WA <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=26640/*http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush">Enter now</a>.