[pianotech] Fujan lever w/ Jahn head (addendum)

[David Ilvedson]

That is the advantage of querying the list before...



David Ilvedson, RPT

Pacifica, CA 94044







Original message

From: "John Formsma" 

To: "Pianotech List" 

Received: 1/31/2009 6:48:11 AM

Subject: Re: [pianotech] Fujan lever w/ Jahn head (addendum)





I want to add something else what I wrote below.





Someone had forwarded my original post to Mayer Gluzman (and I'm glad they did 'cause I learned something).  He called me yesterday to explain more in depth about the lever he sells.  I wish I had known that before I went and had my adapter made. It would have saved me a good deal of time and money. :-(





1. The aluminum piece that screws into the handle (where you screw the head into) will fit directly into a Fujan shaft

2. It is a pipe thread that will receive any head

3. Jahn heads must be converted to screw into it. (A Jahn head is shortened, then converted to a pipe thread to fit into the shaft). This should actually bring the weight of a Jahn head to about where the original Fujan head and tip are.





Mayer sells these separately from the rest of his lever. They are $95. 





I don't know what it costs to convert the Jahn head to work with the pipe thread. 





Mayer also said he would try to get his son to list the availability of these on his web site.





Hope this helps someone.  Wish I'd known about it last week. <G>





--

JF







On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:03 PM, John Formsma <formsma at gmail.com> wrote:



Attached are some pictures showing an adapter to allow attachment of a Jahn head to a Fujan lever.  (Do you call this a FuJahn?) 





Materials are simple. First, there is a chunk of 6061 aluminum, turned down to the correct diameter and threaded to fit into the Fujan handle. This piece of aluminum is threaded down its middle to receive a stud that goes into the Jahn head. Screw them together and it's ready.





Why do this?





First, I like the feel of the Jahn tip. And I've been wondering how a Jahn head with a carbon fiber shaft would feel -- would it be better than the Fujan head? Only way to know is to try it, but I didn't want to shell out $265 for a Gluzman, or $215+ for a Faulk. (I'm sure they are fine, but I already have the CF shaft, and wanted to dink around with this (just for fun -- always searching for the "perfect lever").)



Second, Jahn heads are considerably cheaper than Fujan heads. If one has an adapter to attach a Jahn head, he can use various head angles more cheaply (except for the machinist's setup fee to make these dudes, which was <cough> a bit higher than I had anticipated.) 



Third, one can use the same adapter on the ball end to change it if desired. (For instance, adding a little extra weight to the end might help with certain tuning styles, such as the jerk or impact style. Or, perhaps one wants a different shaped end.) I haven't tried this yet, but might in the future.







This is only day two of my using it. So I'm not totally sure it's better than the original. I'll know more after using the Jahn head for a week, then changing back to the Fujan head. First impressions are good, though. Since the lever is a bit longer, it has more leverage. Therefore, it's a bit easier on the joints. I like the feel of it, and it's really controllable.





The Jahn head is a wee bit heavier than the Fujan head. Haven't weighed it, but it isn't that much more. My thoughts are that anything less than 14 oz. but is stiff as possible is fine with me. I'd rather have stiffer, and can deal with a couple extra ounces if I have to.





Any thoughts from you Fujan fans?





By the way, I talked with Steve Fujan recently. He said he might come up with an adapter to allow the use of a Jahn tip. But he wasn't sure yet if he would do it. So if you want that, maybe some calls to him might prompt it. From my little experience of working with machinists, I can say that mass production is the way to go. CNC I'd guess, instead of doing it by hand the way I had to go about it.



-- 

JF
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