Hi Brian >Let me start on my “sickness”. I started with an original Hale. Don’t know >why I went on my search oh levers as I still think this is a great lever. ======= My first lever was a Hale extension. I loved it. I used it for about 15 years or so until the shaft broke at the threads. Tuners Supply was out of business by then so a replacement Hale shaft was not available. I tried a "replacement" shaft for the Hale, but the shaft did not fit snugly in the lever. I tried cutting new threads on the original shaft but I never got the great fit to the head like it used to have. ========= >Next in my search was the Schaff 21C rosewood which has an overall length of >10 inch. I have every head to go with it but my favourite is 1 ¼ 5 degree. >The problem with the tips is that they don’t seem to fit tuning pins to my >liking. I fit the watanabe tip to the schaff and all is ok. ========== I had a Schaff extension lever too. The problem with every extension lever I bought since the Hale, a couple from Schaff, one from Ford Piano Supply, and the Jahn extension, is the shafts do not fit snugly in the handle and would clack inside the handle. This would sometimes mess with sensing the movement of the pin. I like the fit of the Schaff tips. As you can see in the photos, I exchanged the Watanabe tips that came with the Fujan and replaced them with Schaff tips. Watanabe tips are very popular, but I do not like the way they fit on the pin. They fit very snugly at the bottom of the pin where it first touches, but they seem not to have a real grip up inside the tip. You can take most Watanabe tips, put them on a pin and wiggle the top of the tip back and forth a bit. Most Schaff tips have very little wiggle when sitting on the pin. I like that snug fit. Maybe this wiggle is something others users prefer, using that to their advantage. ============ >I purchased the Jahn extension lever after noticing a number of German techs >using them. I reversed the head when I use the 4 tip however I >believe that the lever is too high from the tuning pin. I also think the >lever is a little heavy. =========== Yea, the Jahn extension lever is very heavy. I think it is the heaviest hammer I have ever owned, save for that crazy Hale Speed Hammer I have.. :) For years I carried two Jahn Lightweight hammers, one with a 5 degree head and one with a 10 degree. I mostly used the 5 degree, switching to the 10 when I had to clear the plate in some grands. =============== >My colleague uses his with the wooden knob, and this is the >reason I have never tried it any further. And too long >.. I do know that he >can feel every lump and bump like I want to. I didn’t know about the other >options. =============== Tactile feedback is very important, I really like the feedback on the Fujan. I should have mentioned that. I definitely get better feedback with the straight handle. The wood handle seems to buffer that feedback somewhat. =============== >So Michael, what do you recommend for me? I would stick with my stated recomendation :) Michael Musial _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_70faster_032009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090321/cb0f2a82/attachment.html>
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