Whacking

[David Ilvedson]

The PTG Tuning test has a technique to test the stability of the unison portion of the test.  Maybe someone can post that exact info.  It is not whacking in any way...Tuning stability is a combination of good hammer technique and an adequate force to insure that a portion of the string segments isn't excessively different than other segments.  Equalizing of the segments is apparently not possible...Hitting the keys as hard as you can until the note won't drift means a total lack of hammer technique.  I do not whack anymore and my tunings stand up to concertos...The archives have lots of stuff on this subject.  

David I.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/11/01 at 8:18 PM Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM wrote:

>Bill:
>While the pin might be very stable, the segments of string from the tuning 
>pin on out to the waste length are under less and less tension if the
>pitch 
>is being changed upward; the reverse is true in pitch lowering. The string 
>system is unstable until an equalizing force is used to attempt to
>overcome 
>friction at terminations and get the tension to equalize. I personally
>doubt 
>that a string system left unaltered is stable enough to leave for very
>long. 
>On the other hand, a stiff blow which is allowed to linger rather than 
>stacato damped will go a long distance in stabilizing the string system. 
>Overhard blows can indeed destabilize the system in the reverse direction.
>
>A good test of this phenomenon is to try this. The next time you have to 
>raise the pitch on a piano more than 20 cents, pick a string in the middle 
>register and after pulling it up to where you want, take a brass punch and 
>give the waste length of string on the other side of the bridge a tap in
>the 
>opposite direction of the bridge pin, i.e. as if you were unseating the 
>string; you will immediately notice a drop in pitch in the singing length
>as 
>tension is released around the bridge. If you did not give the string a
>stiff 
>blow to equalize out tension, then that residual unequal tension would 
>gradually detune the piano. More thoughts? Is this clear? Again, I'm not 
>advocating damaging blows (either to the piano or to self).
>PR-J