My original impetus to try doing this method was trying to get rid of the yo yo effect in high treble tuning when the pins are tight. You know - move the pin, it jumps half a mile north, move it again, it jumps half a mile south, repeat ad nauseum. So I started playing with the slow drag up and it works well. In that circumstance, it seems far easier to have a stable pin set. I don't know how to answer your question with any specific knowledge. But I suspect that it catches up while the pin is moving and arrives at the stop point in that state and stays there, since there is nothing more to do if we have moved the pin accurately. Since this is a relatively new movement pattern for you and likely not yet fully committed to muscle memory, I say keep playing with it. As your technique improves with repetition, you will find that you can quickly drag the pin south, start quickly moving back up and ease back on your speed as you are coming onto your target spot. I also have found that if I am a little unsure whether I have arrived at the stop point and may be just a tad south of it, if I hold my pin push (I have not released the pressure on the hammer), I can nudge it that little bit more and maintain all the benefits of this movement pattern in terms of stability. But if I release the pressure of my hand on the tuning hammer, I have to start over because the pin will twist on its axis. Perhaps an appropriate moniker for this technique would be to call it Drag and Drop Tuning. Will -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jim Ialeggio Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 10:40 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Reducing tuning time (was Re: frustrated) Will, I glad you posted this. Faced with a couple of challenging recalcitrant poorly rendering grands in the last couple weeks, I came up with a movement similar to what you describe...Lower the pitch by moving the pin move the pin much more than I normally do, then slowly come up to, but not over the pitch. If I overshot, do it all again, but coming down was way too chancy and I avoided it except for tiny nudges south. With these poorly rendering items, they just would not tolerate any significant downward pin and pitch motion. Didn't make sense to me at first, but the stability was greatly improved. I'm a lefty, but I tune right handed mostly, and was doing this movement right handed. You describe what you think the pin is doing. In my experience, at least on these recalcitrantly rendering ones, the front segment was also highly involved. I say this, because previously, when I came from above, lowering the pin to target, 10 minutes later, despite my normal rapid fire mf key strikes followed by strong blows, the front segment slowly gave way and continued dropping. Now maybe it dropped because the CCW rotation of the pin to what seemed like the target, let the pin relax back to neutral, slackening the front segment. I guess if I were a front segment hanging up on understring felt and other nasties, CW motion of the pin would force me over the felt whether I liked it or not, whereas CCW rotation of the pin would let me have my own ornery recalitrant mind. Does anyone know whether when the full pin, bottom & top,is in motion, whether the bottom has caught up to the top, or whether, depending on the block and block torque, the bottom is still dragging somewhat behind the pin top as the pitch is raised? Jim Ialeggio -- Jim Ialeggio jim at grandpianosolutions.com 978 425-9026 Shirley Center, MA
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