> Greetings everyone. I’m wondering if any of you have had the following > experience. Yesterday I was tuning a piano that was over 100 cents flat > with very tight tuning pins. I tune uprights left handed so a great > amount of stress is placed on the inside of my hand when raising pitch. > About halfway through the pitch raise, the end joint of my left thumb > went “to sleep” and has been that way for almost 24 hours! Yikes! The > only thing I can guess is that I’ve somehow damaged a nerve. An impact > hammer may be in my future. It's probably not carpal tunnel (median nerve), or at least your index finger would be numb too. There's a nice fat nerve branch going up the inside of your thumb, pretty much unprotected from being trapped between the bone and whatever you're pushing on. That's likely it. I do something like this from time to time using my hands as clamps on somewhat ergonomically unfriendly thrown together shop jigs doing repetitive machining operations on sets of parts. A fingertip, or most of a finger, will be numb for a day or even two, and I know that if I expect to ever do that machine operation again, I need to modify my jig with a better hold down system. It'll pass, but consider it a cheap warning of potential long term damage if you keep doing it. Try a fairly big ball end hammer (easy and cheap enough to make to try it out), and see if the force distribution over a broader area of your palm does the trick. Or tune verticals right handed like you do (?) grands and put the pull on your fingers instead of compression in your palm. People swear by impact hammers for verticals, but I'd think it would be harder on the wrist (at least on what's left of mine) than a "standard" lever. It takes trying it to find out. > This may seem like a small thing but I also teach flute and piano and > I’m worried… Not remotely a small thing. It's a glimpse of the future - the ghost of Christmas yet to come, unless you change something. J Marley
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