Hi David, Here are maybe some answers to some of your questions. +AD4-4. Where would I find a company that will be able to put new felt on the +AD4-existing hammer shanks? The shanks are all in good shape, but the felt is +AD4-worn away. The best I can think of is: Helmut Abel GmbH Riedwasen 2 D-74586 Frankenardt Tel +-+-49 79 592464 Fax +-+-49 79592465 Most of the time you get Mr Abel himself but I don't know if he speaks English Last week I saw a set refelted by him and it looks very good and as far as I hear from others the sound is always OK. The price of this set was DM 500 (+ALE- US+ACQ- 250) New Abel hammers are IMHO the best you can get on this side of the Atlantic. +AD4-6. I have heard that older pianos used low tension wire with a different +AD4-carbon content. It is possible that these are the original wires. If so, +AD4-where would I find low tension wire suitable for restringing? First you have to determine is the original wire is low tension wire or not. Part translation from: Peter Tholey: Praxisorientierte Mensuration mit dem Computer. Chapter: Historische Mensuren. Page. 123-125. Replace one string from one of the longest unisons with modern wire of the same thickness, tune the whole unison as high as possible , about 80+ACU- of the maximum stress of the soft string (?). Then mark the strings (with e.g. white paint) at the end of the speaking length at the tuningpin side . Then relax the new string so that there is just a definable tone. Tune the unison. If the paintmarks have shifted differently you will probably have soft wire. The stiffness of the steel is approximately reverse proportional to the shift distance. The Dutch firm PURE SOUND makes wire for oldies in all sizes from 0.700mm to 1.300 mm in rings of 500 gram for +ALE- US+ACQ- 10. E-module 125 kN/mm2 Pure Sound Eline Verestraat 46 NL-1183 KZ Amstelveen Holland Phone +-+-31 20 6407621 They speak Dutch, English, French, Spanish and German. I hope this helps. Michiel van Loon mvanloon+AEA-xs4all.nl Homepage http://www.xs4all.nl/+AH4-mvanloon Meppel Nederland
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