<HTML>In a message dated 9/21/2002 1:32:12 AM Pacific = Daylight Time, antares@euronet.nl writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:hammer felt Date:9/21/2002 1:32:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time From:<A HREF="mailto:antares@euronet.nl">antares@euronet.nl</A> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> To:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> Sent from the Internet          Antares</BLOCKQUOTE>    &nbs= p;        I believe the only hammer like = this in America cost about 800 dollars and it is sold by the Steinway factor= y. I heard a couple of sample hammers in a piano and I confess I was impress= ed. But two hammers is not really a fair assesment for me however  my f= riend has used a couple of sets on larger steinways and he loved the sounds.= But 800 bucks is to rich for my blood. What do these hammers cost in Europe= ? If it's less than half of 800 I'll try a set. Regards     Dale Erwin <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> And then I say (speaking from a long time experience) : Try the Renner hammers with Wurzen felt. I don't know about the 'Renner blues' made for the US market (maybe they are= made with lower tension because of your (American) way with hammer dopes)<BR= > but at least here in Europe the Renner hammers (with Wurzen) are the very<BR= > best hammers available and you find them on Bösendorfers, Bechsteins, Steinways and  other well known piano makers. Yamaha uses Wurzen on their CFIIIS and these days even Samick in Seoul buys<= BR> Wurzen felt. The Renner Wurzen hammers we use have the following characteristics : Nice, even tone from the beginning. Middle section needs some voicing and opening up (usually around 30 strokes). Lower bass hammers, usually the first octave, need battery voicing (driving<= BR> up the powers from the base of the hammers). Higher treble hammers (from c''' to c'''') need battery voicing. The highest treble hammers, usually the last 5 or 6 hammers, need some dope<= BR> to give them a little more 'ping'. Just yesterday, I voiced an older baby Grotrian Steinweg grand with these<BR= > Renner hammers and it took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to needle them,<BR= > file them, clean them up and apply the dope. Result : A nice, warm and even sounding Grotrian Steinweg baby with a 'ping' in the<B= R> high treble. By looking closely at the fibers of the Wurzen felt, and especially on the<B= R> sides, we clearly see that this felt is not just a dense, stone hard, lifeless piece of felt. On the contrary, it almost seems like it was woven<B= R> like a beautiful and very expensive Kashmir shawl and after hearing the result, we can understand why, in the earlier days, the great piano makers<B= R> in Europe used this felt. Now that the Eastern part of Germany has been added to its former halve, the= factory has opened again, continuing to make what they had to temporarily<BR= > stop a long time ago. friendly greetings from Antares, Amsterdam, Holland "where music is, no harm can be" visit my website at :  http://www.concertpianoservice.nl/ </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>