On Sep 4, 2009, at 7:06 AM, David Love wrote: > Patton does teach that shank trick, not too much pressure, just > enough to offset the string by a couple mm’s. He uses that only in > the capo section. Interestingly, you find that when you test for > stability that way that too hard a “test blow” can actually > destabilize the string segments. A couple of firm but not crashing > blows is all I find is necessary (though it can depend on the piano > and how easily it renders). Tune mf, listen p, test f but not > fff. The lower in the piano you go the less firm the test blow > needs to be as the increased mass and extrusion of the larger > diameter and longer strings tends to settle and stabilize things > more easily. Use two fingers together (or better two fingers and > thumb pinched together at the tips) on the test blows to lessen the > impact on a single finger and joint. Or better than that, do what I do: use the fat, thick end of a fat, thick wool mute (the white and yellow ones) from Pianotek for the test blows. Save your hands, fingers, joints, everything. Let the felt take the beating. David Andersen > > > > In a message dated 9/3/2009 9:30:34 P.M. Central Daylight Time, formsma at gmail.com > writes: > You can try what someone from Steinway (John Patton perhaps?) taught. > Use a hammer shank to see if the string is set. Apply lightish > pressure on the string at about the same angle as the bridge pin. > You'll probably have to experiment with how much pressure is needed. > > If stable, the pitch won't change. However, this is cumbersome. I > tried this for quite a number of tunings, and have since gone back to > a firm test blow merely for the sake of speed. > > My firm blow is usually no harder than the weight of my hand and arm > falling on the key. One or two of those blows will prove stability. I > need to get into the habit of letting my arm fall on the key to save > my joints. Hard to break old habits. > > -- > JF > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090904/7d5436d9/attachment.htm>
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