Hooray for Jim! It seems a bit wierd to be going on about "tuning shanks" as though it would by itself make enough diff to matter. An issue I do think makes a bigger difference, albeit slight: glue. Remember the time when some were recommending hot glue guns (gluesticks) and such? I experimented with adjacent hammer heads glued up with Titebond, Elmers, Liquid hide glue, wilhold wood glue, and a lot of other ones, (even CA thick formula) and found an audible advantage to old fashioned hot hide glue, especially in the treble. I am sure someone out there has a better technical reason for this phenomenon, but it seems to relate to the brittle/hard consistenct of hide glue which hardens as it cools, and relies less on time for water to evaporate. And of course, it has less tendency to allow hammers to wander than the others, too. my 1 1/2 cents Steve
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