The monthly meeting was held at Frank and Camille's Keyboard Center, with 7 members in attendance.

Our president , Mike Slavin presented the technical on grand hammer installation.

There are many considerations of the hammers with relation to the strings which must be addressed when installing a set of new hammers. Mike says you have to replicate the piano itself when the action is out and on the bench. He showed us a custom made jig that will exactly replicate the strings as they are in the piano. Mike continued to lecture about hammer installation, stressing the importance of the strike point on C8 and showed various ways to obtain optimal tone on this crucial note. He then demonstrated how to mark and align the hammers. When you buy pre-hung hammers and shanks you can still adjust hammer strike point and proper travel using guides and jigs. In closing, if you install correctly and adjust with the jig, everything will line up and play correctly, thereby minimizing follow-up work and una corda adjustments.

Once again you had to be there to appreciate Mike's presentation. The meeting adjourned at 8 PM.

Secretary's note: If there are some new people reading this, next month is our holiday party. We invite all newcomers to join our party. It's a lot of fun and a good meal. For details, see the first page of the December newsletter.