Test blows

[Richard Moody]

>.  If it
> consistantly goes out of tune when you hit it,  reexamine how you are
leaving
> the string, don't just pound down from somewhere sharp!
> regards,
> Ed Foote
>  i was once a pounder, back when tunings were $25, ......
> (I guess you could have called me a quarter-pounder?)

Perhaps in the days when tuning was 25 cents.
    I haven't tried this in a while, or lets say I haven't got this to
happen in a long while.   It is supposed to be possible to set a string so
that a test blow will make it go sharp!.  That means some tension in any
length of the string other than the speaking length would be more.
    I have always supposed the main reason a test blow will flatten a string
is because the pin is not seated, or "set".    If you take a tuning hammer
at 12 oclock and manipulate it to depress the pin downwards (without turning
it) and the pitch goes down, the pin is not seated.  If you take do this and
the pitch goes down, but comes back up when the  hammer is released, the pin
was seated, you have "bent" or sprung it down more than the pull of the
string.  Hmm I suppose I could cheat and set a pin in this sprung positon,
and perhaps test blow might cause it to release back up thus making the
string go sharp.
    They don't call it "setting the pins" for nothing. Pounding will not set
the pin---at least not reliably not to mention the waste of time, since it
is the hand and hammer that set the string and pin, twice as fast and ten
times easier than strong abusive blows. This is not the same as occasional
test blows to check your pin setting, or test for idiosyncrecies of how the
strings are rendering.  ---ric