Damper height gauges

[harvey]

Mike, if you want to call it that, I consider it an honor to have a
disagreement with Newt. I've learned so many neat, often discrete things
from him over the years, it's about time for statistics to catch up.

I suppose the idea is like the cup's half full or half empty, and I really
don't have a serious issue with variations in approach. I think Nossaman
summed up my feelings about damper work -- dump 'em in there and get it on.
I once heard the expression [source forgotten] "There's no such thing as
once over lightly on a grand action". IOW, for every change, something else
changes, and compensation must be made. I also learned from Norm Neblett
[source remembered] the value of getting the most mileage out of a
particular tool before picking up another one. (One of my favorite
illustrations of this is a tool with a drop screw regulator on one end, and
a small slotted screwdriver on the other. I digress...)

So, where applicable, I effectively do the same job several times, each
progressively finer than the last. Finally, a point of diminishing return
kicks in, and since I'm the one who's being most critical, I then declare
"enough". My primary objective is to have [whatever] work finished, whether
it's unisons (your example) or anything else, to have a contented client,
to make a few bucks, then donate those bucks to the hardware store. I don't
like to make a "career" out of a project (although it happens sometimes).
Also, it's hard enough making back-room work worthwhile without doing it
over again. Even though I'm making multiple passes, I typically only do a
particular job once.



At 07:26 AM 9/8/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Jim and Newton,
>       A disagreement among the greats?   Jim Harvey, you must have tremendous
>patience and control over temptation!   I can only bear to install dampers and
>regulate each as one step, one damper finished at a time.  I can do about
three
>before I must walk around, get a drink, and/or comb my hair.
>     My own reasons for regulating dampers while installing them are; The
>dampers do not sit on the strings for any length of time unregulated where
they
>could seat themselves wrongly.  Having no damper on one side allows one better
>view of the damper being regulated.   Other reasons are purely emotional.  I 
>can
>look at the job and say I'm half finished.   (It is encouraging to see
half the
>piano perfectly regulated instead of the daunting and depressing site of an
>entire set of dampers needing work.)   Having half of the dampers
installed and
>fully regulated eliminates a temptation to quit when "good enough" is
achieved.
>Mixed work, i.e. bending installing etc., is less fatiguing than doing the
same
>thing for hours.  Of course, I tune pianos "unison at a time" also.
>Just an opinion.
>-Mike Jorgensen


Jim Harvey, RPT
Greenwood, SC
harvey@greenwood.net
________________________
Tuning is a means to an end
              -- Harvey (date unknown)