Hi Michael (and the piano technicians tool manufacturing industry), Congratulations on your decision to pursue one of the most rewarding crafts there is anywhere! I wish you the best of success in your new challenge. I hope that we as technicians can help you along the way. Since about 1992, I've been using APSCO #2 tips. I tried them after ordering a Schaff tuning hammer after I lost my original Hale hammer from Tuner's Supply (stupid stupid me!) The Schaff hammer I ordered (the #6) had some problems -- the head stripped out on the shaft the first time I screwed it on, and the tip rocked badly on the pins. I couldn't tune a piano with it. I sent the first one back, and received an exact duplicate of problems with the replacement hammer. But when I ordered a couple of APSCO heads and tips, they fit the pins beautifully. The head even fit the Schaff lever better than the Schaff head did, or at least it would tighten down so that it wouldn't keep turning on the shaff as you tuned. After this experience I placed nearly all my tool and parts orders exclusively with APSCO, until just recently. Wish I'd ordered more of the APSCO tips and heads before the change to the new Hale design tips was made. Unfortunately, the APSCO tips like the ones I prefer are no longer available. About a year ago, I ordered some of the new Hale tips from APSCO. They rock just as you say. I cannot get the control with these tips I get with my old APSCO tips, or with my original Hale tip I lost. Your concern is not unwarranted. And you are correct, depending on which corner of the star contacts the pins, the rocking is different, so this is a quality control problem. It is exactly the same as with my Schaff hammer. I am frustrated with these tips, and now that APSCO is no longer in business, we may have no recourse for making them good. Shaff contended when they bought APSCO a year or so ago that they would continue to run it as a separate company, but they've let us down there now. Schaff now owns the remaining stock of APSCO, but I don't know if anyone knows what their plans are for the Hale line of products. It would be a shame to see a century-old name synonymous with the highest quality in the industry simply disappear. An article in the Journal a year or so back informed us that there is no standard of uniformity in manufacturing tuning tips in the industry. This is unfortunate. Surely with the level of technology we have today, someone could make consistent star tips. I've never tried the Japanese hammers, so I don't know how the fit of the tip compares to the American tips. The article suggested purchasing your tips when you go to PTG events when suppliers are present so that you can compare the fit on a pin, or ordering several and trying them out and sending back the duds. This is probably the only way you have to find a tip that fits pins. There are other tuning hammer manufacturers but their products are much more expensive, and I really have no idea whether they manufacture their own tips or use those which are available from other suppliers. I wish Schaff would continue to manufacture the Hale products, or sell the name and equipment so that someone else can because we need a choice, and that the quality of tips available industry-wide should receive a good bit more attention to this problem in the future. With the exception of the tip, you have an excellent, well made tool there, and you can learn to use it as it is until you find something better available. I have a student assistant who is doing quite well with one of them. But I think he'd do even better with a tip that fit the pins. I can tune with them, but there is a big adjustment to make in technique. Just be careful while tuning verticals, because it can drop right off the pin, and when it does, it will not only scare the heck out of you, it could fall into the action or onto the fallboard and cause a lot of damage. We as technicians need to start raising a fuss about tips. Yes, I'm equally frustrated, and I've posted before on this same subject. Jeff >Hi everyone! > >I've just started to teach myself tuning. I've ordered a >tuning lever with a #2 star Hale-tip and found it to be >rocking quite a lot when placed on a tuning pin and find >that rather disturbing. > >Since I have no experience telling me just how much rocking >is normal, I ask you to give me a hint so I know if I might >have obtained a tip which is unnormally badly fitting. > >The amount of rocking varies across tuning pins, and using >the tip wrench I can also say that it varies depending on >which corner of the wrench contacts which edge of the star. > >Thanks in advance for any hints > >Michael > >_______________________________________________ >caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives Jeff Tanner Piano Technician School of Music 813 Assembly ST University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 (803)-777-4392 jtanner@mozart.sc.edu
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