Flag-poling: a way of life, or...?

[Tvak@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 11/30/01 6:56:23 AM, mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:

<< I think you guys are talking about two different things: "playing the slot

machine", is to be minimized, that is, bending the pin up and down, or

flag-poling - >>

Actually, that's exactly what I'm referring to.  I bend the pin up.  I bend 
the pin down.  Actually I kind of relax the pin back into it's home.  But I 
do it.  I was taught it.  Now, I don't brutalize the pin, even the word bend 
might be a bit strong, but there is a lift and a relaxation to it.  Didn't 
you mention you do something of this sort in a previous post?

What I feel it does is equalize the string tension on both sides of the 
pressure bar.  Lift the pin and the string goes sharper than it ought to 
based on how far the pin moved (i.e., not much).  Why?  Because the string 
has rushed under the pressure bar.  Why?  Because there was more tension on 
the pin side of the string than on the speaking side.  Relax the pin back 
down and the pitch goes back to where you want it to be, the pin is sitting 
comfortably in the cradle and your string will stay on pitch.  You definitely 
have to leave the pin at the midway point (between the high side of the pin 
and the low) where the pin is comfortable and will not want to move.  Force 
the pin down and it will want to come back up later.  Leave it too high and 
it will want to drop back down.  Same with the string tension.  You have to 
pull just enough string under the tension bar so that the tension really IS 
equal on both sides when you relax the pin back down.  (Boy, that's hard to 
put in words.)

Anyway, that's what I do, and it seems to work for me.  Since I haven't found 
this technique in textbooks and yet I've seen others do it too, I just 
wondered if it was; A) a universal approach, B) after thinking about it 
others might realize they do it too, or C) there are a few crazies out there 
and I'm one of them.  (I think I can rule out A, B is up for grabs, and there 
was never any doubt about C.)

Tom Sivak