Once the hammers are aligned to the strings (and travelled & burned) – and, of course, the keys levelled & spaced (with any required straightening, via steaming or planing) – the checks can be aligned to the hammers (hammer tails), with particular care to avoiding interference with neighbouring hammers.

If it has been necessary to shift the hammers a long way, bending the checks can take a while – but correct alignment provides for efficient checking (and the fine adjustment of  checking distance, to be done later) and hammer release for repetition.

Aligning Checks to Hammers