Ron Torella wrote :
>1. What is the procedure for sending hammers to be re-covered (ie., will
>they take off the old felt and put on the new stuff?). If anyone has
>experience with this, I'd appreciate an email with as much detail as can
>be mustard.....er, mustered. We need to ketchup....never mind.
>
>2. Does anyone know of any *other* company (or -ies) that do this kind of
>re-felting?
Antares writes back :
Hello Ron Torella,
I have a lot of experience with sending hammers away to a factory for re-felting.
Yes...they will take off the old felt and keep the underfelt.
You can ask for a specific felt or not, it is up to you...I usually ask for Wurzenfilz because it is the best at the moment.
The nice thing about re-felting is, obviously, that everything remains the same...There is no danger of a hammer getting too heavy or light.
If we're talking about a grand hammer, it would be advisable to have the factory do the knuckels, or hammer rolls, or roulettes, as well..or even re-pinning. They are usually fair in their prices.
An other option is :
Sending in the original hammer samples and have them make brand new copies...how nice! everything looks new and *is* new for almost the same price, except that you must glue the hammers but in that case you could renew the shanks as well....looks even nicer!
Ah!.....since I happen to live in this obscure part of ze worrald, I have the option of sending my hammers to several hammer re-felters.
The best result I personally had was with Renner in Stuttgart, and Abel..also in Stuttgart.
Prices are about the same..and it depends on each individual customer which company he or she prefers.
It might very well be possible, when you get your hammers back, that the treble section is too weak.
In that case you must of course use hammerfelt reinforcer, but through "my learning" from the pianotech list I now know that Americans are the true masters in doping (piano)hammers!
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