Rosewood tuning lever/hammer

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Isaac,
You are using the tool incorrectly if you are tuningwith the palm of your
hand as the touch of the tool. It is still in the fingersbut for me at the
second joint not the tips of the fingers. My range of minute movements with
my lever is from 1/2 cent in the bass to 10 cents in the treble on most
pianos.
I espesially like the feel of the Yamaha pianos  (made in Japan ) and S&S.
Sometimes being able to feel the click at 1/4 cent and know it is set.
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr@srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Isaac OLEG" <oleg-i@noos.fr>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 3:15 PM
Subject: RE: Rosewood tuning lever/hammer


> Hi !
>
> It Is for uprights pianos probably ; I used one, in fact the effort asked
to
> the arm is less grand because of the posture.
> You have to take off the bottom board and stand really the most parallel
you
> can with the piano.
>
> The feedback in the palm of the hand is absolutely less precise than the
one
> with the fingers, I've find too.
> But it may be my favorite hammer for pitch raises or chip tunings, for
speed
> reason and less tiredness.
> What makes it difficult to control is  the lack of good feeling when
pushing
> on the handle, but I never used a pear shaped or oblong one, only bowl
> shapes.
> I am persuaded a handle that is pear shaped but only slightly larger than
> usual hammers may be good, one may be able to hold it with the fingers
only
> if necessary (the palm of the hand tend to put permanent pressure on the
> lever, and in fact, the part of the fingers that push to hold the bawl is
> not very sensitive, and the pal itself does not "hold" the bowl, it only
lay
> on it.
>
> There is also something with the equilibrium that bother me a little. It
> always seem appealing to all my colleagues, but none have find it really
> very accurate, probably because the use of the palm of the hand.
> Funny as we may use our fingers a lot without noticing eventually.
>
> I am not to say it is not possible to use it of course, but it really seem
> to forward less information.
>
> I actually hold my Yamaha tuning lever with 3 fingers, more or less to be
> far on the handle, the feedback is good enough (for fine or usual tuning
> indeed, if I have to turn a lot a more standard posture is used)
>
> On verticals the round shape allow to go fast from one tuning pin to the
> other, with a balancing move of the key but the fit on the pin is not
always
> ideal then.
>
> With a standard tuning lever (on verticals)  one have to learn to go very
> fast around the tip of the lever with 3 fingers ( like when snapping the
> fingers) and move the hammer while holding it that way. That avoid a lot
of
> neck and back problems (you have if you keep your ankle up while moving
the
> hammer) and you have always a good fit on the tuning pin. Idem, for
> verticals, a 3 fingers holding at the top of the handle is well for me.
>
> But I spend years and years holding my handle in a perfect parallel motion
> before I understood that anyway the pin is twisting !
>
> I consider that a firm holding is good up to some point, but at a certain
> moment one have to produce so small changes in pin twist and pressure that
> the firm holding is not accurate enough.
> So whenever possible a holding that allow to tune up to the final little
> moves is giving you some advantage.
>
> Nowadays, definitively, if your playing hand does not tune also, only half
> of the job is possible. I am persuaded that some pianists put some notes
in
> tune when working the piano (rehearsal for instance), they force the note
> till the tone please them, eventually  and leave it where it is after that
> (when possible).
>
> As a note well tuned is stronger, they don't have to play is so strong
after
> that, they'll be amazed if you tell them what they do ! (some knows it of
> course) same sexy idea that the pianist that knows when somebody else have
> played his own piano, that something is different.
>
> Best regards.
>
> Isaac
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
part
> de Gevaert Pierre
> Envoyé : samedi 21 août 2004 22:33
> À : Pianotech
> Objet : Re: Rosewood tuning lever/hammer
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I just used one of those ball type tuninglevers (from Jahn) on a grand and
> it felt quite unconfortable to me. Maybe I should try a few more times to
> get used to it and I suppose the technique is different than with a
standard
> tuninglever.
> I've heared that it has more advantages when tuning uprights?
> I use the rosewood lever from Schaff also but the Jahn looks more precise
> and solid to me.
>
> Greetings,
>
> Pierre Gevaert
> Belgium
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Alpha88x@aol.com
>   To: pianotech@ptg.org
>   Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 2:16 AM
>   Subject: Re: Rosewood tuning lever/hammer
>
>
>   Greetings,
>
>               I use a Rosewood hammer from Schaff. I like it. By the way,
> what is the advantage of a hammer with a ball type lever?
>
>
>   Julia Gottchall,
>   Reading, PA
>
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