Great post, Paul. And a good finale to this thread. The takeaway? "I probably would have shot myself in the eye by now except, shortly after Mr. Jeffers' pronouncement; I learned to think for myself." Perfection Kills. Dogmatism kills. Excellence is freedom. Do your best efforts and the universe will reward you. Every practice is custom; every life is custom. DA (stepping away from the soapbox.....) On Oct 6, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Dempsey Jr., Paul E wrote: > My, my, my. Who would have thought that there would be this much to > say about beckets? > When I was 17, one of my mentors was Mr. U. Glenn Jeffers, who was a > former VP of the old NAPT, or was it ASPT? Don't matter. By then it > was PTG and he was in that. > > He was the first person to say to me that one of the highest levels > of craftsmanship was to have all the beckets at the same > position...preferably, at three o'clock. Being a neophyte I took him > at his word and have spent the last 45 YEARS trying to get all my > beckets to lie at 3:00. A frustrating 45 years. > > I have re-strung hundreds of pianos, large and small, upright and > grand, countless single string replacements, and not one of them > have had every becket end up at the magic 3:00 position. > > Mow, many have, many at 2:00 and 1:00,1:30, 3:20, even 4:30. > Failure after failure. Woe. > > At least they always end up on the right hand side of the pin, > always the correct number of coils, coils always tight and square to > the pin, excellent torque....but those freakin' beckets. > > I probably would have shot myself in the eye by now except, shortly > after Mr. Jeffers' > pronouncement; I learned to think for myself. > > > Precision placement of the beckets is nice if you can get it. If > you're compelled for it, go for it. I don't think it means squat. > > I just replaced a set of bass strings on a Yamaha grand that the > owner had killed with Pledge or something. I looked at every becket > on the factory stringing and they all were in the 1:00 to 4:00 > position. > > My new Bass strings were all in the 1:00 to 3:00 spot. > > I doubt that the customer will notice. I don't remember ever having > a client even say the word becket. > > > > > > > > > Paul E. Dempsey, RPT > Piano Technician Sr. > Marshall University > Huntington, WV > 304-696-5418 > 304-617-1149 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091006/b39859cc/attachment-0001.htm>
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