recommendations for new tuning lever?

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

    I agree with Tom that a new hammer is in order. However, I would not go
with one that is "newer and lighter". I have a beautiful walnut tuning
hammer that I kept in a special velvet bag, it was so nice. Then, I was
approached by the widow of a tuner who had died, wanting to sell his tools.
( Sorry I didn't meet you, Guy.)  In the tool case she had, was a rather
ugly nylon handled Shaff tuning lever. Green and black, if you can imagine!
But it was heavy, at least heavier than the walnut, beautiful one,  and I've
been using it every day for the last three years. Buffed right up on the
wheel, and now I consider it beautiful too, because it works so dang good!
    Just get a really good hammer, and get used to it. I used to be a
competitive shooter, and some of the new people who got into the game would
show up at the monthly match with a new, better, gun, almost every month!  I
would inevitably take them off to the side and explain to them that the tool
is not going to make them better, no matter how much money they spend on it.
It's whether the tool has certain limitations that they cannot overcome,
(Like a Gooseneck Hammer), and if not, then it's how comfortable they feel
interacting with that tool. In time, it's going to feel like it's an
extension of your hand, and if you switch back and forth, you will never
feel comfortable with any of the tools that you own.
    That is the reason we mourn the loss of a good hammer that we have used
for years,,, It's not that it was so great compared to the other ones out
there, it's more that we have learned how it interact with it, and make it
an extension of ourselves.
    Just a little personal insight, and of course, my two cents worth...

Kevin E. Ramsey, R.P.T.
ramsey@extremezone.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Driscoll" <tomtuner@mediaone.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: recommendations for new tuning lever?


> Stephen,
>     The ideal lever certainly will be one of the newer , lighter, and
> regrettably expensive ones mentioned in the posts, but if funds are short
> for that level of investment,I would get a better quality lever from one
of
> the major suppliers, with removable head and tip and not try another
tuning
> with that little toy you have now. My first lever is 27 years old and is
> still in use for the down and dirty jobs in the shop. Tom Driscoll
>
> > I would appreciate some recommendations on getting a
> > new tuning lever.
> >
> > I am currently using a cheap gooseneck
> >
>