Ken Burton posted: >>Here's my question: when tuning grands, how important is it to exert strong thumb pressure on the hammer in an effort to rotate the pin without leaning it sideways? Is this even possible? I have been simply pulling the hammer handle without worrying about this force having the tendency to lean the pin.<< Mr. Burton, While tuning a grand today, I got to concentrating on my thumb (because of your post), to see what it was doing as I was increasing or decreasing tension. All I could determine about my thumb is that it acted more of a stabilizer at times, and other times it didn't participate very much at all (at least in exerting leverage). It just needed to be somewhere, and what better place than the tuning lever. Sometimes it was just at rest, now that I recall, sometimes it wasn't even touching the tuning lever at all. I thought of a golfer's grip, and how the thumb is positioned maybe to help stabilize the swing or something like that. Anyhow, at no time did I feel or sense the thumb as specifically applying leverage, but more as needing a place to be and every once in a while, giving my fingers something to pull against, thereby making me feel I have more control in the turning of the tuning pin. Avery Todd's following post pretty well says how I feel about the concept of "setting a tuning pin" (bending, leaning, twisting, turning; whatever it takes): __________________________ >>I'm not an expert at all on this subject, but I think what you need to be most concerned about is that the pin actually moves in the block. With very tight pins the pin can also twist or lean/bend before it actually moves all the way down...the important thing is that any twist, etc. introduced into the pin be righted before you leave it or you will not have a stable tuning.<< __________________________ Keith A. McGavern, RPT Oklahoma Chapter
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