Hi Joe,
I tried a ball style hammer once but the shaft was longer than what you
described. I found the shaft to flex way too much in newer pianos that had
tighter pins so I felt a loss of control. I can see how the ball hammer
you describe below would alleviate this situation.
In my opinion, any well-designed hammer (whether impact, ball, or
traditional) can produce a quality tuning as it's not the hammer so much as
the technique that is used with the hammer to turn the pin and settle the
string.
My point in recommending the impact hammer was, in my opinion, that it is
easier to learn for a brand new tuner. I would also make the statement
that you can make smaller incremental changes with an impact hammer than
with a traditional lever. I think the advantages of this a great
especially in the upper treble, where having the ability to make extremely
small incremental changes in the pin (while minimizing bend and twist) is a
requirement for accuracy and stability.
There are many long-time tuners that use impact hammers almost exclusively
(Dean Reyburn is one example). I'm always amazed to find a lack of
articles and information on impact levers. I think they are one of the
greatest inventions to modern tuning. I will admit that the T-style
hammers for grands do take a bit of getting used to. They are a bit more
awkward than a traditional lever but the advantages remain the same.
I'd love to hear any of your comments.
Corte Swearingen
Chicago
"Joe And Penny
Goss" To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
<imatunr@srvinet. cc:
com> Subject: Re: further education
Sent by:
pianotech-bounces
@ptg.org
09/07/2003 08:09
PM
Please respond to
Pianotech
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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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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>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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