Mother goose string leveler

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Oh My,
Such a furror.
I consider the bubble the least important part of the tool.
The process that I use is to first check the level of the piano by using the
stretcher as a bench mark point.

Leveling the piano is seldom needed except in old houses like my back porch
that was once a stoop that we changed into a dining room area. And my sons
house in Danville that has floors that have setteled over the years to where
no two floors run the same direction. I get sea sick there <G>

After leveling all the strings, using the bubble as a guide in helping
establish which string to move, I reshape the hammers and then use my #322
fitting block to mate hammer to string.
The reason for my reshaping is  becuase they need it whether the hammers are
used and grooved or new. And this shaping, if done correctly can help in
making mating easier and much quicker. Usually only a dozen hammers need to
be changed. Except when there are pinning problems where one side has more
friction than the other more felt will be removed from the tighter side.

Refering back to the top, the most important part of the tool is the foot
and second the weight of the tool.

My first levels that we made were made of aluminum channel with a foot of
steel and the vial in the channel. At that time I had worked on perhaps a
dozen grands and did not really have a clue to the needs of the tool. I took
this first level to the Orlando convention years back, Norm Neblett was
doing a string leveling mini class and using the Fazioli level made of H
channel in brass. Only those who attended the Fazioli workshops were able to
recieve a Fazioli level.
I really did not notice the trouble he was having with the tool until he
used mine. The first time he plucked a string it went flying across the
strings and landed on the floor. Instantly I realized the tool needed mass
to make its use easier and not too much so as to cause a problem with string
displacement.
Too much weight would lead to false readings.

Over the years other techs have worked with the level and use it in other
ways than is my use of it.
A gentleman in Canada uses it with a machinests stethoscope, listening to
the ping of the string,  while another lays the level on its side to level
the strings un reachable at the struts.
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William Ballard" <yardbird@vermontel.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: Mother goose string leveler


> At 7:27 AM -0400 9/15/05, Phil Bondi wrote:
> >Don't forget: this device is a tool, and the final test for level
> >strings should be no sound coming from a matted hammer-to-strings.
> >I said arguably!,
>
> I don't argue. What were talking about is a step preparing the piano
> for voicing, not for use as a surveyor's transit.
>
> At 7:16 AM -0500 9/15/05, Andrew and Rebeca  Anderson wrote:
> >Wouldn't it make sense to simply level at the strike-point and then
> >fit the hammer?
>
> Such an approach could conceivably produce a stair-stepped string
> plane earlier mentioned if the plate is either warped, or set inside
> the rim deliberately out of level. But just how fatal is this? Who
> among us could detect, just by listening to the piano, that the
> string plane was climbing by a mil or two, from one note to the next?
> Such a person could probably also detect a jump in string height of
> 20 mils across an action break. I'm interested in meeting such a
> person.
>
> >I guess if you shift the action and then have a phase problem, you
> >piano is really out of level.
>
> No, shifting the action won't change string leveling which agrees
> with hammer strike surfaces. It does however tell you that one or
> both of these has not been done to the accuracy which is needed. Next
> time you hear two strings on a note, both of which are making contact
> with the hammer, but one of whose "pluck" sound is noticeably shorter
> than the other, measure the relative elevation of the two string with
> a dial indicator, at the strike point. 5 mils, maybe. This is the
> accuracy we're asking of our chosen means.
>
> I don't know about a phase problem. What I'm talking about is hammer
> fitting which checks out in the standard position, but which doesn't
> when shifted. No big mystery here, just error that manages to escape
> the procedure.
>
> Bill Ballard RPT
> NH Chapter, P.T.G.
>
> ".......true more in general than specifically"
>      ...........Lenny Bruce, spoofing a radio discussion of the Hebrew
> roots of Calypso music
> +++++++++++++++++++++
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