John: Would it be sensible to make a distinction between "tuning" touch, and "stabilizing" or "test" blows or touch? When I'm tuning, I use a relatively light or medium touch to hear what I want, then give the key a harder (stabilizing) blow with a bit of sustain. I may do that twice or three times on each note. If the note stays where I want it to, or if it actually drops down that whisker of frequency i want in order to create the interval or unison, then I'm doubly gratified. The quiet touch tuning works especially well in the treble, as does setting the string with a short series of stabilizing blows. Paul In a message dated 9/3/2009 9:30:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, formsma at gmail.com writes: You can try what someone from Steinway (John Patton perhaps?) taught. Use a hammer shank to see if the string is set. Apply lightish pressure on the string at about the same angle as the bridge pin. You'll probably have to experiment with how much pressure is needed. If stable, the pitch won't change. However, this is cumbersome. I tried this for quite a number of tunings, and have since gone back to a firm test blow merely for the sake of speed. My firm blow is usually no harder than the weight of my hand and arm falling on the key. One or two of those blows will prove stability. I need to get into the habit of letting my arm fall on the key to save my joints. Hard to break old habits. -- JF On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Court Stewart<calexste at gmail.com> wrote: > List, though this subject has been discussed many times before, I figured it > wouldn't hurt to get some more input. > > Does anyone here use a "soft" tuning technique that they feel results in as > stable a tuning as using traditional hard test blows? With all the > discussions we have regarding hearing protection, and special "pounders" > made of hammer heads, etc., I know it's a matter of concern to many. > Assuming good hammer technique is present, is it possible to dependably (and > efficiently) equalize string section tensions without a good "whack"? > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > -Court Stewart -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090904/c91a7cf7/attachment-0001.htm>
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