Loss and Piano Tuning ( was: hearing etc.)

[John Fortiner]

Conrad - Have you noticed how slippery that felt can be against plastic
keytops??  Try gluing a small piece of buckskin on the end of the felt.
Goodby slipperiness.......

John Fortiner 

-----Original Message-----
From: Conrad Hoffsommer [mailto:hoffsoco at luther.edu] 
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 6:21 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Loss and Piano Tuning ( was: hearing etc.)

At 05:18 PM 5/7/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Conrad, What is a thumper?  Is that something used to strike the key?
>Marshall
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" 
><hoffsoco at luther.edu>
>To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 3:35 PM
>Subject: Re: Loss and Piano Tuning ( was: hearing etc.)

Folks,

My "thumper" is philosophically different than Farrell's.  My left hand
isn't large enough to hold his type and play an octave without doing a nasty
tone cluster. (forsooth, my span is only an octave)  Mine started life as
simply a thumper to check key bedding and soundboard integrity. I morphed it
into something more useful after my carpal surgeries.

What I do is to hold it as shown until it's thumping time, then (first
letting go of the tuning hammer) do a karate chop to the key.  Enroute the
key, I change the grip from pinky to thumb and forefinger. When the key is
struck, my hand slides down the dowel (which has lead weighting in it). 
This means that the force of the blow is taken by the thumper _not_ my
wrist. Sorry I didn't have my wristband on for the picture to show my full
"road warrior" regalia... ;-}

It is simply a 5/8" x 5" dowel with a chunk of hammerfelt on the end,
partially bored out and lead weighted (I had some 1/4' weights laying around
at the time).  You can also see that a ball ended tuning handle won't work
for me.

As they say, "different strokes for different folks".

YMMV