String Levelling guestions

[Richard Moody]

----------
> From: A440A <A440A@aol.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re:  Re: Re: String Levelling guestions
> Date: Monday, April 06, 1998 10:26 AM
> 
> Greetings, 
> Richard wrote:
>  >>Why should we be concerned now, when we weren't in the past? 
>      and I replied, 
> 
> 
> >      Whadda ya mean, we?  
> Richard again:
> 
> > >By "we" I mean us piano technicians.   Wadda ya think it means?? 
> 
>     Now I can ask, whadda ya mean, us?.   The point is that you asked a
loaded
> question, inferring that "we" weren't concerned with this in the past. 
Many
> have been so "we" was more than I could sit still for.  
>     I have  leveled strings since I went to school in 1976, primarily
because
> Eddie Coglin, (who helped teach Bill Garlick, who helped teach David
Betts,
> who helped teach me and many others) pointed out that it was the kind of
> "fine" piano work that was expected of better brands.  This means to me,
that
> leveling strings was part of manufacturing as far back as the thirties,
in
> this country.   
>      Leveling became as essential to voicing as the needles or tuning,
so I
> was casting my vote against separating them; ( I hate to see it as an
> either/or decision).
>     A grand can have all the agraffe wires checked and leveled in 15
minutes.
> Even if this was done at the factory, in two years, the strings will
have
> traveled enough under the agraffes to need it again.  The time it takes
to
> level a string on a piano you will tune often is repaid by the time
saved in
> tuning clean unisons.  Plus it sounds better all the time. 
> Regards, 
> Ed Foote

Ed and List,
	It appears we agree on each other's comprehension of "we"  "We" means us
piano technicians. "We" as I used it is inclusive all the way back to
Christofori.(at least).  
	I agree with you that the inclusive "we" can and should be treated with
circumspect.  You have been leveling strings since 1976, yet in 1976 I had
not heard of it.  Taking the literature of the profession before 1976, and
noting the references to string leveling, it appears that we the piano
tuning profession have not been leveling strings as a general whole before
then. 
		As a history student, the chronological developments of piano technology
is of great interest. When I ask "Why weren't we (the profession)
concerned with string leveling in the past" I distracted from that by
interjecting "Why should we be concerned now?" That part of the question
was ahead of the discussion. 
	In agreeing with Ed's "Whadda ya mean we" I can ask another loaded
question, "When did you'all start leveling strings" 
	I can answer, "Not yet"  If that begs the question "How come?", I will be
glad to answer.  
	If anyone else wants to answer, that would be informative also. .

Richard Answermedo