[pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable

[Ron Nossaman]

On 2/1/2011 7:36 PM, John Formsma wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 6:44 PM, David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net
> <mailto:davidlovepianos at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     But the point was that tuning up to the target in a couple of
>     quick small movements to prevent overshooting can be quicker and
>     more stable
>     than overshooting and settling things back down.
>
>
>
> Not sure it is necessarily more stable. I've tried several different
> ways, and can get the same stability with all of them. Some of them feel
> better than others, and the piano does make a difference in what lever
> technique works best. I don't see how a normal overshoot, one string at
> a time, can make a tuning less stable. After all, the net tension stays
> the same as if you use those small movements without overshoot.
> (Assuming that's possible.)

Often, I do the pin spring thing and pull to pitch without overshoot 
that David describes, then flex (not twist) the pin toward the string to 
kick it over pitch and back down to see where I actually am and what 
sort of back torque I'm leaving in the pin. If it's possible to tune at 
all without overshoot, I don't consider it to be trustworthy let alone 
more stable. Other times, I'll just pull it up and spring it back, etc. 
There are dozens of minor variations of this sort of technique I use in 
different combinations in different parts of different pianos depending 
on what I find pin by pin. That's why I've said before that hammer 
technique memorization, and even discussion in any detail is mostly 
useless in real life because you so rarely do the same thing twice in a 
row. It requires continual processing and adjustment.

One constant, as Ed said, presuming that the string will render enough 
for me to have any idea what I have, is to leave some back torque in the 
pin to balance the string tension and friction. There's no way you're 
going to leave a stable tuning without this.


> A couple years ago, I thought I was doing the above with great success.
> But nowadays, I'm not so sure. <G> Whatever I'm doing works, but I'm not
> sure I could describe it very well using words. I think we basically
> find what works well for us as individuals.

I suspect you're doing a number of things in varying concentration and 
balance depending on what you find, as you should be.
Ron N