Greetings,

Having rebuilt and serviced players for others for many years, I'm
finally getting around to finishing my own. The piano is a 1918 5'8"
Knabe-Ampico.  The action has hammers that look like the Abel hammers in
the American Piano Supply catalog #96, page 70, with the exception that
the top of the tail has a gentle curve and is not flat, as in the example
pictured.  Now that American is defunct I inquired at Schaff, with vague
results on what they actually had in the Abel line.  I then inquired at
Brooks Ltd.  Their line of Abel Encore hammers has the traditional
"American tail."  In talking to Mr. Brooks, he assured me that their
hammers would be shaped to a proper fit and that using a hammer with a
flat-top tail, even though the rest of it looked the same, would not
catch the backcheck correctly.

I would appreciate any advice or feedback from anyone that has replaced
this type of hammer, and any advice on the use of the Brooks/Abel hammers
in this application.  I don't want to ruin the backchecks by using the
wrong profile.

As an aside, this piano was evidently sent back to the factory for
retrofitting.  It has the original 1918 stack and primary-valve box, but
the entire drawer was replaced (with the piano's serial numbers stamped
into the back of the cover panels): late "A" expression regulators with
pedal compensation, sustaining and soft pedals controlled by a model B
valve board and configuration, late "A" pump and late motor mounted on
rubber.

Thanks,
Bruce Mercer