[pianotech] String Leveling question

[Joe DeFazio]

Hi David,

To answer your first question ("What, ideally, should bi- and tri-cord  
level be parallel to?  keybed? stretcher? plate?  top of  
agraffe....?"), I would say, to the top, or striking surface of the  
hammer.  The point of string leveling is to ensure that the hammer  
strikes all strings at the same instant.  That is why, while leveling  
strings, we use a tool or a technique to bring the hammer lightly into  
steady contact with the strings, and pluck the strings to discover  
which strings are higher or lower.

If the hammers are excellently filed and hung (and if capstans have  
been trimmed carefully to form a good hammer line), then their  
striking surfaces each will create little line segments that all fall  
in the same plane (within each section).  Of course, if the hammers  
have been poorly sanded or hung, sighting across the hammer line from  
the side will reveal any hammer striking surfaces that are not  
parallel to the horizon and that are not coplanar with their  
neighbors.  If such a circumstance is found, then it is most advisable  
to fix the problem in the action before leveling strings (remedial  
action might include softening or breaking glue joints to realign the  
hammer, burning shanks, and/or re-filing the hammer).

I guess my basic point is that, when the hammer striking surface is  
very well prepared, then the string level tool will help you to level  
strings quickly and accurately by matching the level top of the hammer  
with a level pair or group of three strings.  Conversely, If the  
hammer striking surface is not well prepared, then it won't matter  
what surface you use the tool to level the strings to - they'll still  
sound bad with zingy, whiny open strings and poor sounding unisons,  
and the tool won't have helped you to accomplish anything useful.

Even after you prepare the hammer line very well, and use the string  
level tool very well, it would still be highly advisable to check the  
mating of each individual note manually (quoting from my first  
paragraph "use a tool or a technique to bring the hammer lightly into  
steady contact with the strings, and pluck the strings to discover  
which strings are higher or lower").  After all, the goal is not to  
make them look nice;  it is to make them sound great!

I'll skip your second question.

To answer your third question ("How many times (at which points) do  
strings get leveled after stringing?"), the answer is, it depends.   
Everyone will give a different answer.  One of the very finest concert  
tuners I know levels strings at nearly 100% of his tunings, and I  
really do mean on Whitney spinets, tiny and dreadful Brambachs and the  
like, as well as on big Steinways.  At the other end of the spectrum,  
I'm sorry to say that some tuners may go an entire career without  
leveling a single string.  Naturally, I wouldn't want such tuners to  
ever touch my instrument or one on which I was to give a concert.  For  
me, I will usually level strings when I hear the "unlevelness" while  
tuning for a professional musician, piano teacher, fine amateur  
player, or for a concert.  If I'm tuning a spinet that is 200 cents  
flat, and was just moved out of grandma's garage for Junior to start  
lessons on, I probably won't bother, as the piano probably has much  
more significant problems which should be addressed first.  Even in  
that circumstance, though, If the "whininess" of a string is really  
bugging me and my schedule permits, I might still level a string or  
two.  So what if Junior will never notice - I did, and I have to  
satisfy myself first.

Joe DeFazio
Pittsburgh


> From: David Skolnik <davidskolnik at optonline.net>
> Date: March 8, 2009 6:51:07 PM EDT
> To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Subject: [pianotech] String Leveling question
> Reply-To: pianotech at ptg.org
>
>
> Dear Listees,
> A few questions have been prompted by my very recent acquisition of  
> a tool many of you have probably owned for some time:  Joe Goss's  
> brass String Level.  I'm quite enamored of it and it will, at some  
> point, probably get me into as much trouble as did Tom Lowell's  
> gauge.  I apologize if I'm overlooking anything obvious, or if there  
> was a recent discussion of this that I'm unaware of.
>
> - What, ideally, should bi- and tri-cord level be parallel to?   
> keybed? stretcher? plate?  top of agraffe, (if not rounded, a la  
> Bechstein)?
> - How often do you come across ideal?
> - How many times (at which points) do strings get leveled after  
> stringing?
>
> Thanks.
>
> David Skolnik
> Hastings on Hudson, NY
>

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