[pianotech] Test Blows

[Court Stewart]

Thanks to all for the responses so far, in this thread and the related
"Pounding" and "Hearing Protection" threads!

Using a big felt mute as a pounder is something I hadn't considered -- it's
already in my kit after all.  I use the three-fingered "tripod" method along
with arm weight and so far have had no problems with my left hand/arm.  I
had a piano instructor that drilled the arm weight thing nearly every
lesson, as well as instructing me to keep tension out of my shoulders.
Chances are if your shoulder is raised/shrugged while you're doing test
blows, you're holding tension there which could lead to problems.

Some great ideas for earplugs I'd like to upgrade to -- I use 'em but only
when I must because my current ones attenuate high frequencies so much I
feel like I'm losing precision.  I also use them when there's too much
background noise, or in a very echo-y environment.

The hammer shank idea is the sort of thing I was wondering about -- too bad
it seems too cumbersome to use for an entire tuning.  If I'm really worried
about a particular piano, I finish up with ff two-handed octaves up and down
the keyboard a few times with the pedal down.  "Finish up" is the probably
the wrong phrase -- usually after I do the octaves, I find I've got some
more work to do :).

This is probably a ridiculous idea, but has anyone tried using a
vibrator/buzzer of some sort for testing?  Thinking along these lines I
borrowed a Sonicare toothbrush (an ultrasonic toothbrush featured in the
Tools section of the Journal a year or so ago for cleaning dampers).  I
touched its plastic head to the speaking length of an unmuted string and got
a very satisfying buzz out of it (didn't use any toothpaste). I haven't
tested to see if it would be enough to cause a string to render well -- I
suspect it might.  I have an old Steinway upright with some strings at the
pressure bar thingy that may be good guinea pigs.  Other ideas I came up
with: a buzzer that could be clamped to the bridge and triggered with a
footswitch, or how about something built in to the tuning lever that would
buzz the tuning pin when you pressed a button? Ridiculous or merely silly?

Truly Yourzzzzzzzzzt,
Court Stewart


On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 10:11 AM, David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>wrote:

>  That can work as well also the “pounder” made from an old hammer that
> some use.  For me I don’t like having to hold something in my hand since
> even during the tuning of unisons (as you go method) I’m still stretching
> out and testing the octave or some other interval so I don’t like to have
> something in my hand that I have to deal with.  But either way you do need
> to protect the joints.  That’s a lot of cumulative pounding adding up over
> the years.
>
>
>
> David Love
>
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>
>
> *From:* pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] *On
> Behalf Of *David Andersen
> *Sent:* Friday, September 04, 2009 10:12 AM
> *To:* pianotech at ptg.org
> *Subject:* Re: [pianotech] Test Blows
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
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