"pounding"

[David M. Porritt]

Susan:

I do feel pain (not horrible pain) on loud blows in the treble when I'm not wearing ear plugs.  I do wear my musicians ear plugs all the time while tuning and I feel that I can hear better while using them.  I've become nearly an evangelist for these things.  

Last week I found yet another reason to use them.  While I was tuning the lady of the house was cooking.  She burned something and the smoke alarm went off.  Those things are LOUD!  The ear plugs brought it down below the ear damage stage.

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 10/31/99 at 7:42 PM Susan Kline wrote:

>At 06:04 PM 10/31/1999 -0800, Jason wrote:
>
>>One direct, sharp blow is sufficient. While gently manipulating the tuning
>>pin, you are pulling the short distance between pressure bar and tuning pin
>>into much higher tension than the tension on the speaking distance of the
>>string. The purpose of the hard blow is to equalize these two tensions. If
>>they are not equalized at the time of tuning, they will equalize more slowly
>>(and the piano will go out of tune rapidly).
>
>Theoretically, I don't see how this would work out. Maybe some wiser heads
>will inform me of what's really happening. Picture: the part of the string
>up near the tuning pin is too tight. So you give a good sharp blow to
>"equalize" it. The good sharp blow raises tension in the speaking length,
>and presumably pulls even harder at the length near the tuning pin.
>
>Personally, I pull the hammer a little in either direction, listening for
>the changes in pitch, and I feel more secure when the final pitch seems to
>be exactly in the center of these changes. And while I use just a blow or
>two, and not killer blows, for a lot of private tunings, for the concert
>work I really lay into the thing, with multiple hard blows. It may be that
>some know how to use the hammer to do some of this, but I find that my
>results are a lot better if I "overdo" the test blows.
>
>As far as ear damage is concerned, I don't feel that the middle section and
>bass, in a largish hall, are any particular problem. If my ears are freaking
>out in the high treble and I still need to use the hard blows, I'll put in
>my musician's plugs for the first pass, then take out the left one (the ear
>turned away from the piano) to evaluate what I got, using soft blows.
>
>When people say that loud sounds "hurt", do they mean physical pain? I feel
>very uncomfortable around loud sounds, and I don't like the distortion and 
>buzz
>from them, but I've never felt physical pain from them. Does anyone feel 
>stabbing
>pains in the ears from loud sounds? When some of you say that after a day 
>of hard
>tuning your ears are "worn out", what form does this wearing out take? Is it
>specific to your hearing, or is it general fatigue and difficulty 
>concentrating?
>
>Susan




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275