As an important preliminary exercise for understanding excitation of real piano strings, the general solution for a point hammer of massmhitting a perfectly flexible string of linear density μ is developed further by allowing for hammer compliance. Previous work on this problem is critically reviewed, and the existing analytic theory is summarized. The role of the critical complianceC0=m/16μTis discussed, and inclusion of a resistive force is also considered briefly. In close parallel with our earlier general solution for a hard hammer, the analytic solutions are implemented with a microcomputer to overcome the difficulties of multiple contacts between string and hammer, and representative results obtained by this method are presented. While this approach constitutes a general solution of the problem in principle, it is most practical for moderate values of the ratio of hammer mass to string mass and forCnot too close toC0.