[CAUT] string level

[Ed Sutton]

Chris wrote: I'm so tired of agonizing over the unisons next to the plate break not to mention listening to those notes on most pianos that I'm thinking of forming a non-profit organization to support your research.

I respond: You mean it's not me? What is it about those notes? I have resorted to tuning all three strings with Cybertuner, and still have noises and beats. This is true of the highest agraffe note as well as the capo bar notes.
I have fought not to become superstitious, to no avail. I will check leveling and hammer contact more diligently.

Ed S.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Solliday 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 9:01 AM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] string level


  Fred,
  Your right about the heavy (level) and the strong (magnet). I can't get it to work. For the magnet to be strong enough to "work" it distorts the strings. I give up. You are on a better track and I hope it works well and that I can duplicate it. I'm so tired of agonizing over the unisons next to the plate break not to mention listening to those notes on most pianos that I'm thinking of forming a non-profit organization to support your research. Best of luck.
  Chris
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Fred Sturm 
    To: caut at ptg.org 
    Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:48 AM
    Subject: Re: [CAUT] string level


    Hi Chris, 
    I'm having trouble visualizing the hanging of a Mother Goose level below the strings. First, it's pretty heavy (50 gm) and would take an awfully strong magnet (which would tend to defeat the purpose by pulling the three strings together into one plane). Second, I don't see what surface of the level would contact the strings, and how you would see or use the level part. Maybe I am just not imaginative enough.
    About a top heavy design, I have been using one for quite a while. I copied the idea back in 03 from Takatori Itake, one of the Shigeru Kawai MPAs, and came up with my own design based on materials at hand. I posted a photo to this list four years ago. Here it is again. I made a couple (one for each tool kit), and it is my level of choice. I like the fact it sticks up where I can see it, as well as the ability to read next to the strut. It _is_ a bit of a "pendulum," but with a very light touch I stabilize it with a finger or two. I'm so used to doing it, that I don't think about it. I usually want to manipulate the level a bit anyway, especially if the middle string is high, to see what and how much I want to do to which string(s). The one with the magnet I just posted is more stable, and doesn't need to be stabilized. Partly that's because the level part is lighter weight.

    Regards,
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm at unm.edu






    On Apr 30, 2009, at 7:45 AM, Chris Solliday wrote:


      I only want to put the magnet on it to hang it underneath, which I gather you don't like either cause you have to go in and out of the cavity. I've got a couple of these levels and will experiment with a magnet and see what happens. It is precisely because I like the Mother goose levels and find them well made and easy to use that I want to try and find a way to keep using that one tool.
      If I remove the dampers, which as Eric W and i agree is not too much trouble for the result, I will only need to be bobbing and weaving on the unisons right next to the plate break, in my mind a small effort for a consistent result.
      I look forward to the development of your tool Fred, it sounds like a good idea, but I just can't get past the unweildiness of "top heavy." I hope that you do.

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