[pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable

[David Love]

I suppose I could have worded it more precisely but it's not at all nonsense
and it's easy to demonstrate if you're open to it.  You can flex the pin
forward while you are turning it such that the pitch actually drops in spite
of the fact that you are turning it in the sharp direction.  Then when you
release the flex which, in this case, is pushing the pitch to the flat side
more than the twisting of the pin is pushing it to the sharp side, the pitch
will climb to your target.   The tension in the first segment never rises
above the target tension.  A controlled flexing like this in which the
flexing offsets the twisting means that the higher amount of tension often
left in that first section (which tends to cause stability problems with the
pitch moving flat) never occurs.  That's my point but feel free to parse it
any way that gets you off.       

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 6:59 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable

On 2/2/2011 2:07 AM, David Love wrote:
> Overshooting means that you increase the tension in the first segment of
the
> string (the segment leaving the tuning pin) to the first friction point
> before the  speaking length moves.

Nonsense. That has nothing whatsoever to do with overshooting. If you're 
going to raise the pitch of the speaking length with the tuning pin, 
you'll increase the tension in the first segment first and most. That's 
not hammer technique. That's kindergarten physics.



>If you tune with counter pressure applied to the
> tuning lever that compensates for the twisting of the pin, you can move
the
> pin in the block without increasing the tension in that first section, no
> overshoot.  The risk of exceeding the break point then is minimized.

Absolute nonsense. It's still the higher tension in the first segment 
that pulls the string from the speaking length through the agraffe or capo.
Ron N