[CAUT] Mythbusters

[Greg Granoff]

I saw Jurgen's plastic backed sandpaper at the conference and was impressed
with it, but didn't inquire about prices.  What are they like?  
Back to Ulrich: I don't have any idea where he gets his paper--he was being
peppered with questions at that point and I didn't think to ask :-(
He does his preliminary filing before any needling. He shoulder needles with
needles sticking out about 5-6 mm. He constantly runs fast chromatic scales
to test for evenness, and brings his voicer right up to just a hair from the
crown if need be using just finger pressure to push the needles in for notes
that stick out, often with the needle line turned parallel to the hammer
sides for individual strings. This method was also used for voicing between
grooves for the shift pedal.  Someone asked him about how much "in the
crown" voicing Hamburg hammers can take, and he indicated they were "pretty
robust" hammers and could take a fair amount.
He does all his polish up filing after needling.  He will use a chop-stick
if need be at the very end if in a hurry, but prefers taking the action out
if possible so that he can remove any possible needle-induced distortion in
the hammer shape by first setting the hammer felt with the end of his
voicing tool handle, and then fine filing. 

Greg


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David
Ilvedson
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 11:17 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

Diamond grit...?   Where does one get that?   I've been happy with that
stuff Jurgen sells at astronomical prices...It's 3M, so I'm on the hunt
whole sheets.   It has a plastic like backing.   I want to glue it to my
paddles...

Did he do a lot of deep needling in the lower shoulders before or after
filing?

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Greg Granoff" <Gregory.Granoff at humboldt.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Received: 3/10/2010 11:02:27 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters


>He uses teflon tape backed strips of diamond grit paper only just as wide
as
>an individual hammer.
>He begins with around 320 I think he said, graduates to maybe 600 if he
>feels it necessary, and finishes off with 1200.  Obviously, the procedure
>might eliminate the coarsest grit if it wasn't necessary to actually
reshape
>significantly. In the class, he began by making a very small change in the
>shape of the hammer, eliminating a slight bulge in the shoulders facing the
>keyboard that made a slightly asymmetrical look. He holds the strip against
>the hammer shoulder to index the strip's horizontal angle for a straight
>striking point.  Later, if he is fine mating hammers to strings, he has
even
>narrower strips to make the change he needs on one string position at a
>time. He finds these problems with the method of lifting the hammer/shank
to
>the string with a hook, and plucking with a tapered hammer shank. He says
he
>never files through the strings for mating, since he is fanatical about
>keeping the correct shape on the "nose" of the hammer, as he called it, and
>his strip method lets him do this. 

>Greg

>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
>Sturm
>Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:24 AM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Mythbusters

>On Mar 8, 2010, at 3:13 PM, Greg Granoff wrote:

>> For me, it was extremely useful to see his hammer filing technique  
>> (he never
>> gang-files) and the materials he used, and he kept up a running  
>> commentary
>> as he worked, crisply answering questions in a careful but efficient
>> Germanic way without ever losing momentum.


>How does he file? Paddle? Strip?
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm
>University of New Mexico
>fssturm at unm.edu