Square Hammer Tips vs. "Shaped"

[MattC]

Hi Folks - new member here.   I recently replaced the somewhat worn hammer tips on my 1974 Mark I Stage 73 with one of the sets from Speakeasy, and actually ended up changing them back.  I found I vastly preferred the sound of the original (square) hammer tips to the new "shaped" ones, which seemed "thin" and lacking in guts.   Has anyone else had a similar experience?   Does anyone make replacements for the "old style" hammers?   I'd like to have a few extras to travel with just in case.

Thanks much - Matt

[dnarkosis]

An outfit called Musicpartsguru regularly sells at least some of the different shore on eBay. They will probably sell you some off-auction as well.

[jim]

i got hammer tips from speakeasy and they ended up being the wrong hardness. there were no reds.. just all soft black until yellow.
i didn't tell them though.

i bought hammers from musicpartsguru and they were all gauged out underneath and many were loose.
eventually they sent me more but some of them were unusable also.. so i wouldn't reccomend their stuff, it may well be worse than what you're trying to replace.

[MattC]

Yeah...I think for now I'm just going to stick with the original hammers and turn them when they develop grooves.   I was amazed how much it affected the sound to change to the new hammers.   The original ones seem to have a "broader" sound, emphasizing a lower set of harmonics, while the "shaped" hammers from Speakeasy tended to soften the fundamental quite a bit.   Well, it was a good experiment at least...

Matt