hammer voicing

[Israel Stein]

At 05:00 PM 6/29/96 -0700, you wrote:
>I am curently finishing some work on a Mason Hamlin AA and have just hung
>a set of Abel hammers. After the usual string leveling, shoulder voicing,
>etc.it had glorious sound--until I tried the soft pedal. The tone in the
>top one and a half octaves turns to a terrible soft, thin sound.
>Remember, the strings and hammers are matching and the crowns have been
>voiced evenly. I have hung a lot of hammers but have never really had this
>particular problem and have now run out of my bag of tricks. This
>performer uses a lot of half pedal on the una corda. Any suggestions?
>
>Everett Story RPT
>

Check for hammer overcentering (or underceentering?). Or
over(under)striking. Or whatever they call it in your neck-of-the woods when
the wrong part of the hammer strikes the string (usually slightly behind the
very tip). Your description of "terrible soft thin sound" in the treble with
UC shift sounds indicative of that. If that's the case, you'll have to raise
(or lower?) the stack with relation to the strings.

Israel Stein RPT