Hammer Replacement

I love Baldwin pianos- they're built like a tank and feel great when well regulated. My only complaint is that after a number of years, the hammers they use tend to become hard as rocks and cause the piano to sound "like a carnival." (Billy Joel, 1973)

This is my personal instrument that I replaced the hammers on, and the change in sound is unbelievable. Once I figure out how to include videos I'll add a recording of me playing- the tone ranges from clear and soft to strong and brilliant, and all it took was a new set of hammers!

Here's the general process: take about a million measurements, bore holes in a new set to match the angles of the old set, snip off half of the old hammers and use the leftovers as a guide to glue half of the new hammers. Snip off the other half of the oldies and glue on the remaining new ones. Regulate the keyboard and action to accomodate any changes in geometry, and voila! Sounds like an entirely new instrument.