[CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid

[Paul Milesi, RPT]

Fred-

I, for one, truly appreciate your explicit descriptions and explanations, as
well as your understanding that this list has a much wider audience than the
handful of technicians who may be participating at any particular time.
Many of us are doing or learning to do what others are writing about.  And
those of us who are mostly reading are learning all the time!  Thank you.

Paul M
-- 
Paul Milesi
Registered Piano Technician (RPT) Member, Piano Technicians Guild
Certified Installer of the Piano Life Saver System® by Dampp-Chaser
(202) 667-3136
(202) 246-3136 Cell
E-mail:  paul at pmpiano.com
Website:  http://www.pmpiano.com



> From: Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu>
> Reply-To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:26:27 -0700
> To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bum set of NY hammers, I'm afraid
> 
> On Feb 11, 2011, at 5:58 PM, David Love wrote:
> 
>> I¹m taking him at his word on this one.  The same prep work in
>> fitting is required of any hammer and he has set up several others
> 
> 
> I'll just note that I try always to write with the entire list in
> mind, regardless of whether or not I am addressing an individual (if I
> only want to talk to that individual, it's pretty easy to go private).
> So a good deal of my emphasis is for the benefit of "everyone
> else" (or at least everyone who needs to be given that emphasis). And
> frankly, I don't think you can over-emphasize the basics, whether it
> is clean and solid unisons (and an efficient technique to get them) in
> tuning, or precise aftertouch in grand regulation, or travel/square
> and mating (all three, always all three, no short cuts are possible!)
> in action set up. And I'll say it again, because just fitting hammers
> to strings is not the point. Unless they are thrown precisely toward
> the string, the fitting process may improve things but certainly won't
> optimize them. It requires precise travel and square as a foundation.
> Otherwise your hammers are wobbling around, giving unpredictable blows
> to the strings (as is seen in high speed videography). This is not
> just speculation, it is borne out by considerable experience of
> refining travel and square and hearing the results.
> I know that I thought I was a pretty good tech 20 years ago, 10 years
> ago . . .  Thought I had those techniques down pretty well. It is a
> constant process, refining and self-questioning and refining some
> more. So maybe some of what I write is annoying to some, but at least
> it is well-intentioned and based on my own experience. In this case,
> my own experience is that pre-hung Steinway hammers need considerable
> attention to travel and square, before you start thinking about
> lacquer and needles.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> fssturm at unm.edu
> http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm
> 
>