Short Tips, Long Post

[Robert B Edwardsen]

I use a 3 inch long tip, tune at the 6:00 position on grand pianos and have
a minimal amount of pin bending.   I think this position (6:00)  is good for
body and arm alignment.  Tuning this way I have never broken a pin in 24
years of tuning.

Rob Edwardsen, RPT

Tom Cole wrote:

> I just finished reading the letter in PTJ entitled "Bending Pins" and I
> am moved to comment. I hope that the author, Jack Brusette-Mills, is on
> the list but, if not, all are certainly welcome to respond. It takes 3
> months for a letter to get published in the Journal and, this list being
> so much more immediate, I thought that a change of venue would be
> appropriate.
>
> The main point of Jack's letter is that when you tune a piano, you are
> bound to bend the pin, that this is not a great sin and that, by how you
> position the tuning lever, you can control the direction of the bending
> such that you don't needlessly change the pitch so much in the course of
> settling the pin. No argument so far.
>
> Another, auxilliary point is that longer tips bend pins more than
> shorter ones and that the shortest tip possible should be used. This is
> where the author and I part company. This is also where I will probably
> draw some fire because it is a restating of a common myth that is
> repeated by so many in this organization.
>
> Jack said that he "would like to end the debate on 'bending tuning
> pins'" but I think that some very scientific experiments need to be done
> before we can pry any pet ideas away from their masters. And even then
> we can expect some Cling-ons to remain (Mr. Sulu, activate deflector
> shields!).
>
> Performing a vectoral analysis will show that the length of the tip is
> only one factor in the equation and that the angle of the head must also
> be considered. If the tuning lever is high enough to clear the plate
> struts, it matters not if the tip is long and the head angle is low, or
> if the tip is short and the head angle is high. You still end up with
> the end of the lever in the same height above the plate and the tuning
> pin has no eyes to see that you are tuning with a lever of one style or
> the other. It just knows that when you push or pull at a given height, a
> certain percentage of that force registers as a pin-bending force
> because you are not exerting that force at the level of the tuning pin.
>
> To get a virtual feel for what I'm saying, imagine that you are tuning a
> grand piano and that, on a tuning pin, you have a twelve-inch-long tip
> with a handle attached to it that puts the handle, pointing at you, at
> the level of the pin block. This means that there is a twelve-inch
> downward offset in the shaft of the tuning wrench, to compensate for the
> long tip, which allows you to turn the pin in the block with no
> unintentional bending. It's just as if you had removed the stretcher and
> were turning the pin with a flat ring spanner (box wrench).
>
> Imagine now that you are changing to a tuning hammer that has a short
> tip and a 45° head. Half of your exertion is turning the pin while the
> other half is bending the pin.
>
> In this extreme example, the long tip works better than the short one,
> if you discount for the kluge of a handle you need for the long tip.
>
> IMPO, the reason that the short tip was invented was to allow the tuning
> of pins which are located in tight spots (player action or case parts in
> the way). Understand that I'm fine if the rest of PTG uses short tips on
> everything. But Jack is asking for agreement amongst us that the use of
> short tips minimizes pin bending (with no mention of head angle). If
> someone can provide plausible arguments in support of this thesis, I'd
> be happy to consider them. Or any comments you might have, yea or nay.
>
> (For the record, my personal preference is to use a long tip and a
> Coleman 20° head for all grand piano tunings, regular tip and 15° head
> for uprights, short tip when necessary for players. I like the looks of
> the regular tip with stainless steel head, made by Keith Bowman, but I
> prefer the clearance the grand piano rig gives me and I've learned to
> control the pin-bending consequences.)
>
> Tom
>
> --
> Thomas A. Cole RPT
> Santa Cruz, CA