Tuning lever length

[Ron Nossaman]

> Phil is the first in this thread to bring up wear & tear upon 
> all-too-vulnerable human bodies. All of us are highly at risk for 
> repetitive motion injury. Purchasing and trying out a few ergonomically 
> improved tools is WAY less expensive than a series of visits to primary 
> physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, orthopedic 
> surgeons, et al. 

This is the very reason I made a ball end lever (10" overall 
length, 2-1/4" ball). It let me adopt a more comfortable 
"limits of joint travel neutral" hand/wrist position, and 
distributed finger abuse more evenly over the whole hand and 
under my control as to where the pressure went. It worked 
extremely well, and my fingers even eventually started working 
again, until I rolled my truck and smashed my right hand. But 
even with a thoroughly crunched up index finger and the rest 
severely sprained (hand looked like a foot), I went back to 
tuning the fourth day after the accident. Without the ball 
end, there's no way I could have done that. Still using both 
the lever, and the hand.

Ron N