Not sure when I will go back. I had my IPAD and should have taken some pics of the hammers.
I think the owner already knows that the top action needs to get re-done. My guess is that the hammer thing was done at the church to "lighten" the action and I am also thinking it
was done with a dremel or some other rotary tool. Someone in my area has destroyed several piano actions using a power assisted tool. I do all my hammer reshaping with paddles of different grits. My view of dremels and hammers is the two do not mix. Also if you don't know
how to do the job don't use a customers piano as your test bench.
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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-31-2013 21:22
From: James Kelly
Subject: Steinway Bass Hammer Shaping
I looked at a Steinway L today circa 1975 with teflon bushings. Previous owner was a church for 30 years. Amazingly little to no rust considering it was in a North Carolina church. Anyway I was just evaluating the piano for the client. Some hammer filing had been done in the past but many of the hammers now have mild flat spots across the crown. It looked to me that someone may have used a dremel on all the bass hammers because of the amount of felt that had been removed in the shoulders . I believe the shape shown in the Steinway manual is more of a pear shaped hammer felt. These hammers had a severe somewhat diagonal cut . In addition the piano was overly bright. What would be the best solution for reshaping the bass hammers to put a good strike point back on them and would rounding off the strike points and perhaps ironing the felt help reduce brightness or are we looking at a lot of needle work ?
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James Kelly
Pawleys Island SC
843-325-4357
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