[CAUT] Clicking notes on a B

[Mark Dierauf]

After chasing loose hammer shank joints around with boiling water 
followed by fresh hot hide (applied with a brush) and/or CA glue with 
less than stellar results, I've taken to just popping off the offending 
hammers heads (like Ed says...with the shank/hammer assembly removed 
from the rail to protect the pinning) and gluing them back on with your 
favorite hammer hanging glue. If necessary, use a shank reducer to clean 
up the shank, although if they were glue starved to begin with they 
often pop off clean. I find this a lot, and even in the absence of 
clicking I check all the heads whenever I have the action out by simply 
grabbing and wiggling - the loose ones stand right out! One thing that 
I've never been able to understand, though, is why I never seem to find 
loose hammer heads below (roughly) the capo sections. I assume that this 
might have something to do with either the bore angle or the stiffness 
of the strings, but I really don't know.

- Mark Dierauf

Andrew Anderson wrote:
> <div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed">We had 
> the Long sisters Duo (great artists, don't miss them if you have the 
> opportunity) here at TAMIU.  During the course of their practice and 
> the pre-concert tuning (done minutes before) some clicking developed 
> in the hammers.  I held adjacent notes down tight to eliminate 
> slapping of the front rail.  No joy.  I put a finger over the damper 
> and softened the upstop.  That did seem to make a little difference.  
> I checked, the rail is in place with plenty of felt apparent.
>
> I've had to reglue a few dampers including one after their practice so 
> I'm suspecting the hammer-shank glue joint.  Would this be a candidate 
> for a little vinegar to reactivate the glue and tighten the joint?  Or 
> would it be preferable to simply remove the worst hammers, knurl the 
> shank and re-glue?
>
> Andrew Anderson
>
>
> </div>
>