"pin set", test blows, string segment tension balance: Reality Check?

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Kurt

What we actually <<know>> is what we can observe and confirm with 
reason.  There is as you say lots of speculation that comes from all 
sorts of perspectives... some try and logic their way to conclusions 
that are not valid, some try to use to weakly understood math/physics 
modeling that simply isnt up to the job anyways... etc etc.

What I can say is that there are a host of folks out there using a 
variety of techniques that for them as individuals work extremely well 
with regards to resulting in very very stable tunings. There are also a 
very much larger body of folks out there using these same variety of 
techniques that do not have it down yet.... some of these will at some 
point... most probably will not. This is as it is in nearly every human 
endeavour.

In the end... the tuner however she deals with the job, finds some 
tactile, if you will, sense of contact with where the string and pin 
are... how much <<in place>> they are.  Some use a bit of flagpoling, 
other pound hard, some use as little pin motion as possible, some use 
this that or the other combination of angles on the pin.... but it ends 
up working out to the same need to be able to <<feel>> where things are 
at.  This takes a lot of experience, experimentation... and 
perseverance.  An ETD can be very helpful here.

One thing I've always found to be true.... when someone starts telling 
you that a thing can be best accomplished one way... and only one way... 
and all other ways are inferior...,   that person is out to lunch. :)

Cheers
RicB


    I am looking for some clarity on the issue of settling a string/pin
    in order to hold a solid unison.

    When it comes to string stability, test blows, "pin set" technique,
    pin twisting, pin flagpolling etc...

    What do we actually KNOW about what is going on, and how do we know it?

    I hear techs with various (and often conflicting) personal stories and
    myths that seem to work for them, and often make intuitive sense on some
    level, but how do we separate verifiable reality from what seems to be
    simply "dogma" of the trade?

    What actual empirical evidence do we have, and how can that be applied
    to tuning hammer technique?



    [kurt]