Greetings, Mark! The procedure you describe outlines the procedures which used to be in place in New York. (By the way, can you tell I am green with envy?) The solutions of choice were similar, but lacked collodion/ether (if you had seen the S&S plant in the 70's you wouldn't have used ether, either). The preference for the smallest amount of hardener is one I have long held, also. That is why it is so important to know what baseline (in terms of the instrument) you are working with before you start. The method used by George is clearly the one of choice; but requires that a certain hardness of hammer to begin with - not an major issue (for the most part) with Hamburg, as their hammers tend to be quite consistent, but still a consideration. It seems to me that, in suggesting that this is in part a cultural difference, you have hit the nail on the head. The american hammers were, for many years, much larger, but lighter, and used very different felt than since WWII. Amazing things can be done with hammers from before that period with simple sandpaper files, needles and the occasional hot iron. While acceptable (from a certain point of view) results have been possible with hammers made since, the last set I had that I truly thought - "WOW!" - had been made in the 50's. I think you raise very important questions here, too. While it sounds glib, the base answer to most of them is direct manufacturing expense. That dictates a great deal more than any amount of time some poor sot spends needling/lacquering/ whatever in the field. Then, you get back to this Pandora's Box issue of: "And, what, exactly, is good piano tone, anyway?" Let's go run the bulls at Pamplona. Also, in this same arena are issues of education. What do you say to a pianist whose concept of piano tone is dictated by their constantly listening to recordings made on really, really bright pianos, very closely and hotly miked, with the resulting signal being pushed through $50K or so (minimum) of electronics? Something on the order of: "Ya, Sure! Yabetcha! I can make this baby just like you want it - you just sit there and play, and it will sound like you have your right ear permanently affixed to the middle of the tenor bridge." Of course, the audience in the first ten rows of the house will have permanent hearing loss, and leave bleeding from the ears - but, no matter. Oh, well... Very cool. Best. Horace +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Horace Greeley, email: hgreeley@stanford.edu CNA, MCP, RPT Systems Analyst/Engineer voice: 650.725.9062 Controller's Office fax: 650.725.8014 Stanford University 651 Serra St., RM 100, MC 6215 Stanford, CA 94305-6215 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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