Hmmm... well its your piano... and if you want to invest in new hammers, and the old hammers are badly worn, then I have difficulty understanding why a tech (RPT or otherwise) would recommend reshaping. Ok, this is always a judgement in cases where the hammers are in good enough shape...or even borderline....but on the other hand new hammers present all kinds of opportunities to improve play and tone... and they should last longer then any reshaping job. Reduction in felt by reshaping can cause a noticble lightening of touch... its approximately a 5 to 1 ratio. Lessening of friction can also feel lighter and quicker. Tho I am no fan of using graphite in action parts... and would go so far as to advise (warn) against it...certainly if we are talking about action centers. In any case there are better (to my mind) lubricants available ... ie teflon powder, McLube, WinSlip, Protek to name a few. One thing some, if not many, techs overlook when installing new hammers is the effect (read opportunity to manipulate) on touch weight. This is changing me thinks... thanks to the likes of Stanwood, Graviogne (sp?) and others who are doing a lot to educate about action dynamics. I am curious as to the general condition of your vintage Steinway otherwise... soundboard / bridge condition, pin block, and the like. Would enjoy to hear more about it if you can share that with us. Bob Luderer wrote: > I am considering replacing or reshaping the hammers in my 1926 Steinway > model M. Hammers are Steinway, were last replaced in 1966. Voicing no > longer is able to resolve the tonal variation, they are just too worn for > that. However my tech (not an RPT) thinks that reshaping will get a few > more years out of them and bring the tone back to what it should be. I > would be interested in your thoughts on this......I wonder how this will > affect the "feel" of the instrument, there was talk of lubing the action > with graphite as well........ > > Bob Luderer > Acctg & IS Manager -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
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