further education

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hi Corte.
You might find this hard to believe but my last choice of a hammer would be
an impact tuning lever such as the ones that are on the market today. The
Grand T is an idea to have a impact hammer that will tune both uprights and
grand pianos as well as provide some relief to tuner who are starting to
feel the years of wear tuning with a regular tuning hammer.
 My personal choice of hammers is a wand style hammer with a very stiff
shaft 20% head and loose tip. With this hammer I am able to tune with a
impact style or smooth pull which ever the tuning pin needs. Usually it is
an impact technique from the low bass up to arround F6 or F7 where a
combination of smooth pull with impact to settle the pin is necessary for me
to feel confident that the pin/string whatever are in a place where they
will stay LOL
 The reason that I prefer the wand style is that the hammer is far less
stressful on the shoulder { elbow can remain at belly button level most of
the time } than the traditional cigar handle and can be used easily on
grands with no change in technique. Well mayby a slight change. On grands I
find myself using any spot on the ball or shaft to bump the pin down.
Joe Goss
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <cswearingen@daigger.com>
To: <joey@onkeypianotuning.com>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 11:07 AM
Subject: RE: further education


>
>
>
>
>
> Joey,
>
>
> In my case, since I switched in the middle of the Randy Potter course,
> there was really no adjustment for me.  I learned to tune on a new Yamaha
> U1 and the pins were very tight.  With the traditional lever, I really
felt
> as though I was just fighting the pins too much, especially in the upper
> treble where it was difficult for me to make very small increments with
the
> traditional lever.
>
> Yes, the technique is quite different.  Because it is very easy to move
the
> pin in small increments with an impact hammer, I usually move the pin back
> and forth, getting closer and closer to the target pitch until I come up
to
> pitch on my last movement.  The jury still seems out on this but many feel
> that making this final movement up to pitch (as opposed to moving to pitch
> from above) makes for better stability.  In my own experience, I haven't
> been able to tell much difference in stability whether I approach the
> correct pitch from above or below.  For whatever reason, I seem to be
> quicker and more accurate if I approach the pitch coming down from above.
>
> The only problem with an impact hammer is that it really doesn't work well
> on grands.  However, I have a second impact hammer that is a T-handle
> hammer (I'm sure Joe Goss will tell you about his - it seems very nice!)
> This does cause you to carry around 2 weighted hammers and makes the
tuning
> bag quite a bit heavier but that's never really bothered me much.
>
> Although I love Schaff, the design of their impact hammer isn't very good.
> I had Keith Bowman at Renner make my upright impact hammer and Mike
> Swendsen (out of Canada) make my T-hammer impact wrench.
>
> Sometimes I will find a piano where the pins have low torque and in these
> cases, it can actually be a bit of a challenge to use an impact hammer.
In
> these cases, I use my traditional hammer.  So, in my case, I carry three
> different hammers in my tuning bag.
>
> Corte Swearingen
> Chicago
>
>
>
>                       "Joey Recker"
>                       <joey@onkeypianot        To:       "'Pianotech'"
<pianotech@ptg.org>
>                       uning.com>               cc:
>                       Sent by:                 Subject:  RE: further
education
>                       pianotech-bounces
>                       @ptg.org
>
>
>                       09/05/2003 11:50
>                       AM
>                       Please respond to
>                       joey; Please
>                       respond to
>                       Pianotech
>
>
>
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>
>
>
> I've seen them in the catalogs but that's about as much as I know about
> them.  If I use an impact hammer, does my technique have to change or
> what?  How long did it take you to adjust?
>
> JR
>
> > Joey,
> >
> > I'm a relatively new tuner as well and I must say, in my
> > personal case, I found an all new level of accuracy and
> > stability when I switched from a traditional tuning lever to
> > an impact lever.  Of course, when I made this switch, I was
> > still taking the Randy Potter course and still trying a lot
> > of different techniques.  In my experience, technicians who
> > have used the traditional tuning lever for a long time don't
> > tend to take too well to the impact hammer.  In my opinion,
> > however, it is easier and quicker for a new tuner to learn
> > the impact  hammer than the traditional hammer.  My tunings
> > became more stable and I was able to set the pitch quicker.
> > It might quickly take that 3.5 hour spinet job down to a more
> > reasonable 1.5-2 hours.
> >
> > Just my opinion.
> >
> > Corte Swearingen
> > Chicago
> >
>
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