I know the discussion on this [tuning pin sorting] has pretty much died down, but I have been out of town for a week and wanted to add one more thing. In case anyone still doubts the necessity for miking tuning pins, we just got a set of Diamond brand pins (plenty money). The first two pins out of the box miked fine, but about 60 percent of the box was out of round by up to FIVE thousandths. That is, mike them one way, then rotate them 90 degrees and re-measure, and the measurement was different by way too much. What this means is as they are rotated in the block, eventually only the wide part is bearing fully against the wood. How much oval is too much probably depends upon the material, with the most elastic material being a little more forgiving. I would guess that maple would be able to tolerate a thousandth or two out of round, with the elastic nature of the wood able to conform. A new block may be a little more forgiving than an old one. The densified multilaminate blocks seem more sensitive to variations in size and shape. Round is still better than oval in this application, and five thousandths strikes me as a bit much. The supplier did replace them. Regards, Bob Davis
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