string leveling (was damper seating)

[Jerry Anderson]

Greetings,

My string leveling device isn't very high tech, but it's
very precise.  It's a piece of brass stock 40 x 10 x 2 mm.
I stand it on the 2mm edge on the strings so that the
40mm length spans three unisons.  If  I keep it polished
its easy to see the out-of-level strings against the base,
but generally I lightly  pluck strings as the strings will
vibrate against the brass with an effect that varies according
to how much they are contacting (or not contacting) the brass.
It's then a matter of leveling and repeating the test until
all strings look and sound the same.

If the stings are extremely out of level it's better to shift
the piece of stock between several contiguous groups
of three unisons before starting to level, to avoid the error
of "leveling" a run of three unisons into a slanting plane.

The stock is small enough that it has the tendency to fall over
which quickly becomes annoying, so I've added a small
handle:  a  4 cm length of wood (it looks suspiciously like
a popsicle stick) glued perpendicularly to the 4 cm length
of brass- the whole thing has the form of a T.

Jerry Anderson


>David ilvey wrote:

>String leveling is a great strand...At our next chapter meeting
>in Marin County, chapter member Chris Ris is going to
>demonstrate his string leveling jig/device of some sort.  I
>guess its purpose is to show you the level of the strings.  I'll
>report back on his ideas.  I at one time tried a wooden key
>bushing caul which I placed upside down on the three string
>unison.  Often it would be obvious that the middle was high or
>one side or the other was high/low.  When I was close I would
>tap the outer strings to see if the caul would lean one way or
>the other more readily, telling me that string I tapped was low
>or high.  It seemed to work pretty good, a little slow.  Now I
>use my fingers ala Yamaha and have developed a fairly good feel
>for level strings.