[CAUT] Impact tuning hammers/tuning tips

[Jeff Tanner]

Hi Jim,
Great comments!

On Friday, June 17, 2005, at 11:40 AM, James Ellis wrote:

>  I cannot find a U.S.-made tip that comes up to what I think a
> really good tip should be.

AMEN!

>  I'm of the opinion that there are too many
> technicians out there who have never felt what a really good tip on a
> really good tuning hammer feels like.

 From comments I read from time to time, I think you are absolutely 
right.

>  No matter how beautifully made a
> tuning hammer may be, it's no better than the tip that's on the end of 
> it.
>

Well said, and that's exactly why I haven't forked out $250 for one of 
the new handmade hammers.

I don't know what I would do without my Hale/APSCO rosewood extension 
hammer I got not long after APSCO bought the Tuners Supply inventory.  
(I had just recently lost my first hammer, a real Hale nylon extension 
hammer.  Been sick about that ever since.)  I was told when I ordered 
it it was a Hale handle with APSCO mechanism, head and tip.  Cost me 
$58, and they remained reasonably priced right up until Schaff acquired 
APSCO.  The #2 tip that came with that hammer, and another I got about 
a year later is perfect on 99.99% of tuning pins.   The star at the end 
of it is not as large as the later APSCO and all Schaff tips.  I can 
feel every little thing that happens from the top to the bottom of the 
pin and can control the pin movement to a degree that simply is not 
possible with any more recent tool I've tried.  Also, because of the 
consistently good fit, the tip shows barely any wear at all.  I've 
noticed that tuner friends I know who use #3 tips as a general rule, 
are also replacing them with some degree of regularity.

I've complained to the folks at Schaff, (and also APSCO after they 
changed their design in the mid 90's up until Schaff's acquisition).  I 
can't use their tips.  Their standard answer is that tuning pins are 
not uniform - that the tip is not the problem.  My answer to that is 
that that doesn't matter with my early 90's APSCO tip, but that their 
tips don't fit ANY pins.  But my rebuttal falls on deaf ears.  My 
observation is that the degree of taper on US made tips produced in the 
last 10 years (and every Schaff tip I've ever tried) is too sharp, so 
the pin "tops out" up inside the tip leaving a very wobbly, 
uncontrollable fit.

I can't stand a sloppy fitting tip, and I don't feel in control of the 
pin with the "slapping" or "impact" method.  I would think that a 
combination of sloppy fitting tip with an impact hammer would reduce 
control even further, and scar up the tuning pins as well.  It also 
seems to me an impact hammer style technique would have a greater 
tendency to wallow out the tuning pin holes in the block, but that is 
just my perception.

Jeff


Jeff Tanner, RPT
School Of Music
University of South Carolina