I'm in the process of restringing my piano, and until recently, I wasn't in a financial position to be able to get new hammers, but now I expect that I may be able to replace them. (They need it anyway - they're wearing down thin, the grooves are fairly deep, and I don't think it's a good idea to use new strings with old hammers for regulation/performance reasons.) Anyway... I have a website set up where you can listen to clips of pianos that have a tone similar to what I want, and you can also listen to what my piano sounds like in the "before" state. It should be pretty much self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, feel free to email me. http://pianoplayer88key.hey.nu/pianotone/pt.html My question is... what brand/type of hammers would you recommend to be able to get the kind of tone I'm looking for out of the box with minimal/no voicing (needling/lacquer)? note: I prefer a medium/warm tone like the moderate playing clips - I put the other few ones in there just in case it'd be possible to get different voicing for different volume levels. I would like a decent bass section, extra brilliance when I play FF/FFF (very loud - pounding on the keys), and be able to have a soft, mellow tone when I play lightly (pp or so). I also like a bell-like upper treble like what you can hear in the clips that have the treble playing. -- Stephen Airy stephenairy@fastmail.fm -- http://fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail
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