swinger

[Ken Burton]

            Joe,

            Thanks for your comments re: the Mehaffey impact lever.
            Re: the Smooth Pull. Yes, it takes patience but I have found
some pianos where this technique, even though it is a slow and patient move,
brought results better and quicker than the "jerking" or "hand impact" type
of movement. I think most of us like to hurry up and give a pulsing or
jerking movement to the lever and, with most pianos, this gives satisfactory
results. It is the unusual pianos that give us the headaches.
            I am in the process of designing and building an electric impact
tuning wand. If it works as successfully as I hope and feel I can expect
from the performance of prototypes, it will make tuning much easier and more
accurate. However, the building aspect of this unit is in the hands of
others than myself who have much more expertise than I but much less time.
Therefore, the project is moving as slow as molasses.
            However, when (and if) the unit is ready for use, I will make
sure everyone knows about it.

                        Ken Burton "Doctor Piano" Calgary Alberta
                                   kwburton@cadvision.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe & Penny Goss <imatunr@primenet.com>
To: kwburton@cadvision.com <kwburton@cadvision.com>; f.santori@fastnet.it
<f.santori@fastnet.it>; pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Saturday, January 23, 1999 9:39 AM
Subject: swinger


>Hi Ken,
>In hind sight my use of the impact lever was most likely flawed causing me
>to have sporadic results. If memory serves me right I would get lazy and
>lean on the handle to bring the pitch down after impact took the string
>above pitch.
>In choosing to use a regular hammer some of my bad habits were overcome due
>to a change in  technique required (11 to 1 o'clock ) in placement of the
>handle was the same but my body was different. With all the prior use of
>impact technique it was not easy to do the slow pull that you describe and
>find myself using impact on almost all pianos with exception of the high
>treble.
>Even with the Wand style level that is my main lever (since SATlll and auto
>advance) impact is the
>fastest method for me as tiny movements of the pin up in pitch are easier
>for me to achieve.
>The design of my BIG T for use in tuning grands comes from by desire to use
>true impact without side pressures being exerted on the tuning pin causing
>the pin to be slightly bent in the process
>
>
>