Winter Console Hammer Delima

[Jim Coleman, Sr.]

Hi Jonathan:

If you try to glue back the hammer felt, you can never match the 
pressure and tension which was there in the original manufacturing of 
the hammer. Therefore the tone will not be there for you. You have the 
option of replacing the hammer or two, but again the tone probably will 
not match and the appearance would not be the same. My advice in this case
would actually be to reglue the hammers, reshape them along with the rest,
and then use lacquer or keytop solution to restore the density. Keytop 
in solution of Acetone works fairly well because it dries rapidly. If the
surface of the hammer is too hard, you can use straight acetone to  
soften the surface a bit. Trial and error is in order here. Using needles
to take down the density afterwards will not work the same as it would 
on non treated hammers. For one thing, the hammers will not have much
internal tension. You will probably be reduced to using the solution and 
then washing with acetone if you over-do the solution. If these damaged
hammers are in the high treble area (the usual case), you can soak the
entire hammer with the solution, then lightly brush the surface with the
acetone.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

On Sat, 14 Nov 1998 YouthPage8@AOL.COM wrote:

> I was tuning a Winter & Co. Console for a new customer today, and noticed that
> the felt on three or four hammers in a row was coming unglued... it's like
> someone took a knife and and started seperating the wood from the felt at the
> top of the hammer. It doesn't quite go straight through, but it hinders the
> sound.  Should I glue back the felt or replace the hammer heads completely??
> 
> Thanks,
> Jonathan Hoover
>