recommendations for new hammers?

[Tvak@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/8/02 2:22:42 PM, stephenairy@fastmail.fm writes:

<< what brand/type of hammers would you recommend to be

able to get the kind of tone I'm looking for >>

Well, Stephen, I did visit the site to hear your piano, but I got tired of 
waiting for the data to download, so I didn't hear it. (I got up to 593K, and 
realized that to get up to 3.8meg would take another 15 minutes or so.)

But I was able to view the picture of your Ricca & Sons and couldn't help but 
notice how horribly the keys were leveled, or rather, not leveled.  
Regulation starts with regulating the key height, and since the keys are not 
at a uniform height I know that the piano must be terribly out of regulation.

I don't know if this photo was taken prior to your regulating the piano, but 
I think it would be hard to accurately evaluate strings or hammers (new or 
old) without first regulating the piano.

You might be surprised at much impact regulation has on tone.  Yesterday I 
restrung the bass strings on a Wurlitzer grand.  You wouldn't believe how 
different one string sounded from the next.  Some had little sustain, the 
same kind of tubbiness that the old strings had, and kind of a 'whack' when 
the hammers struck the string.  Others sounded fine.  I realigned the hammers 
to the strings, reshaped the hammers, and suddenly everything was uniform, 
string to string.  I still haven't set the letoff which is much too great at 
present, so there is less power than there will be.
The 'whack' turned out to be the damper levers hitting the hard, old felt on 
the damper upstop rail which somehow exhibited itself only on a few notes in 
the bass.  Replacing the felt had the apparent effect of improving the tone 
of the strings.

I'm not saying that regulation is going to turn a Winter into a Steinway, but 
before you replace the hammers I would recommend regulating the piano first.  
Certainly the tone you strive for, i.e., 

<<extra brilliance when I play FF/FFF (very loud - pounding on the keys), and 
a soft, mellow tone when I play lightly (pp or so). >>

will be impossible to achieve without proper regulation, no matter what 
hammers are on the piano.

Tom Sivak