too much "pounding!"

[Richard Brekne]

Hi Charly... there are two solutions to your problem. Number one.. buy / or make
a pounder. There are lots of configurations for this but a simple one is two
bass hammers glued together so that you can use that to beat the hell out of the
piano.. (grin.. sorry list but yas all knows I dont like pounding so much). The
other solution is to stop pounding. In spite of what any and all say.. pounding
isnt necessary, its just one way of going about solving the problem of getting
the strings to render and stay where you want them. Many tuners successfully
accomplish this without pounding so it becomes a matter of taste and preference
and what you are good at.

I find that pounding is "neccessary" only when strings simply refuse to render
no matter what else I try. Also sometimes on brand new pianos that come from a
company that doesnt believe in tuning more then once or twice at the factory.
But this latter is simply to stretch out the strings a bit and often enough you
can accomplish the same thing with a string seating tool or a so called false
beat eliminator tool. This last is actually a good choice as you can use it to
insure good string to bridge contact at the same time.

Charly Tuner wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Any suggestions as to how to lessen the stress on our "pounding" fingers? I
> use my left index & thumb for loud striking, and I am losing the feeling in
> the tips as they are becoming continually numb!
> Also, just how HARD should we have to strike, and how many strikes are
> generally needed? And I am referring basically to those pianos where there
> is no serious rendering problems. There is a Steinway tech on the floor
> where I work, who came over and demonstrated how a perfect unison will not
> stand unless you BANG the key HARD, many times, almost to the point of
> breaking the hammer shank! What's up with that? Is that what we want to do?
> I strike pretty sharply on average a couple or more times, and then move on
> once the unison stays put. An expertly & beautifully tuned piano, ANY piano,
> will go out/flat by continuous playing, especially forte playing, alomg with
> other factors of course.
>
> So, once we get our unisons perfect, after normal striking and pin setting,
> why the heck would you want to continue to POUND,POUND,POUND, AS HARD AS YOU
> CAN, when you will just throw it out again? Doesn't make sense to me.
> Afterall, humidity changes and other climatic and structural factors will
> probably make the piano go out of tune first; NOT the fact that you  nearly
> BROKE the hammer shanks in an effort to make it stand in tune longer. Just
> my thoughts...what are yours?
>
> Terry
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--
Richard Brekne
Associate PTG, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway