Unglued Hammerheads (Clamping)

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

        I would like to make two points here.  First, it makes sense to
me to match the repair to the value of the piano.  I would never dream
of gluing the felt back onto the mouldings of a fine piano.  But many
pianos I service are far from fine and the family has limited
resources.  Also, does it make sense to put a new set of hammers on a
low-value piano that has serious limitations in other ways?
        I have been regluing felt to moldings for some years now (not
many opportunities to do this, I assure you).  I have not had any of
them fail, and for the average person on a low quality piano there is no
perceived difference in tone over those which were still intact, and it
is a clear improvement over the tone before it was repaired.
        Second, referring to the last sentence below, there are quite a
number of things we do nowadays that no one would have dreamed of twenty
years ago.  Some of them are not widely used, to be sure, and some are
excellent while others are suspect.  But we keep learning and applying.
The useless ideas fall away (hopefully), and the good ones endure.
        Some of us are purists who cringe at making any compromises.
Others are not.  My hat is off to all who give fair value for their pay,
for we are all needed in this business called piano service.  Cheers!

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger, RPT
Lititz, PA, USA

Richard Brekne wrote:

> But WE (field techs) do not glue hammer felt back onto the
> molding....  In anycase its a waste of time....  Any way you add it up
> you are much better off replacing heads....  I couldnt dream anyone
> would seriously consider trying to reglue hammer felt to mouldings in
> this fashion that were damaged in this fashion.