Tuning lever heads

[John Delacour]

At 8:14 AM -0500 12/1/01, Clyde Hollinger wrote:

>I'd like to take this discussion a different direction.  As I admitted
>recently, I am a left-handed tuner.  When I am tuning a grand piano, my
>preferred position of the tuning hammer is about 5:00...But even 
>that doesn't work on a 1993 Kawai GM-1 grand.  That front piece 
>(front beam, stretcher?) is simply too high.  Positioning the hammer 
>at 3:00 would have worked, I suppose, but the twist in my back felt 
>uncomfortable at best and unhealthy at worst.

I'm both left-handed and old-fashioned and round here there are 
plenty of tuners who are right-handed and old-fashioned -- and that 
is to say that we tune uprights with the left hand and grands with 
the right.  I will tune an upright about 10:30 and a grand about 1:30 
-- or 11:30 at the very top.

I also use an open razor and shave my left with the left and my right 
with the right!  It doesn't take long to learn with a razor because 
you have the incentive to get it right pretty quick.  Try tying a 5 
lb weight to your left hand while you're getting out of the habit.

JD