I was leveling strings this morning, so I thought I take a picture showing my "top heavy" level in action. As you can see, the level is nice and visible above the plate strut (no need to lean over to see it). I stabilize the level with finger and thumb, really just barely brushing it with fingertips. I pluck the strings with the string hook tool shown, using the hooked end of it on the string to produce a very subtle pluck (more controllable than fingernail or sharpened hammershank, and then use the same tool to pull up on appropriate string(s) (method courtesy of Takatori Itake). While I am pulling up on strings, I move the level aside. Altogether, this is very efficient use of energy, with minimal hand and body movement. The left hand stays on the level, resting nicely on the strut. The right hand uses the same tool for plucking and for pulling. The only time I need to put something down and pick something else up is if I need to press down a string, which is relatively not too often. In any case, I have been using this system successfully for six years. Half an hour usually gets me through a piano that needs a lot of work. I'll do extra-picky refining work while voicing, but a first run through will make that refining quite minimal. The only drawback is it won't fit between dampers and capo that are too close together, so that's why I am exploring the magnet thing. P5070002.JPG Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090508/a68b8774/attachment-0001.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: P5070002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 25629 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090508/a68b8774/attachment-0001.jpg>
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