A good friend, Dan Levitan (NY PTG) has designed a tuning lever to virtually eliminate the flag pole issue during tuning. Unconventional in lok but extremely effective. Last I heard, PianoTek is planning on manufacturing and selling the tool. Dan has also written several articles for the journal regarding the subject of flag poling the pin and techniques for minimizing it during tuning. Gerry C West Chester University of PA From: fssturm at unm.edu To: caut at ptg.org Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:19:38 -0600 Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bechstein model B tuning stability On Oct 17, 2009, at 10:27 AM, David Love wrote:A very conscious rotary motion with even a slight forward press (sounds like a golf swing) and a closer to 12:00 hammer position. I'll second this notion, very much including the "forward press." If the twist of the pin is enough to pull the string through and past friction before the pin turns in the block, a downward pressure on the hammer is an excellent technique. The idea is to balance things so that the turn of the pin in the block, and the movement of the string past friction points, are coordinated, they happen perfectly in sync. So use a 12 o'clock position of hammer, and apply pressure downward or upward on the end of the hammer lever (essentially "flagpoling" the pin forward or backward), so that when you feel the pin begin to move in the block, the pitch just begins to move. This will vary depending on tightness of the pin and amount of friction on the bearing points, so you have to calibrate what you do to the piano, and to the individual pin. It's not always possible to do this perfectly, but you can usually get quite close, and this technique makes things far less confusing - you know where you are at all times. Another factor is a good stiff hammer. I got a Fujan recently, and it is amazingly better than anything else I've tried. The feel of the pin is much clearer, and calibration of how much to push or pull (or "impact" - nudge) is much more precise, since there isn't any significant "spring" stored in the hammer lever itself. All muscular effort is directed at the pin. Regards,Fred SturmUniversity of New Mexicofssturm at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091017/53df63de/attachment.htm>
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