[pianotech] Hammer Technique: was Q & A Roundtable

[John Formsma]

On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 8:17 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote:

>
> 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.



Sounds like what I do. Except I might do it in reverse. (Ahem ...  sitting
at home at a computer, it's hard now to say exactly what I do. Kinda don't
think about it since it's more a second-nature thing. <g>)  Seems like I
move the pin the smallest amount it will move in the block (which causes
some overshoot--yes. Then untwist, then flex the pin toward the bridge, then
ease it back toward me, which brings it up to pitch, and hopefully stable.
If a test blow knocks it flat, repeat that.

I always overshoot by some amount. But it seems like it's the pin twist that
*is* the overshoot. Once you un-twist the pin, you can flex the pin to see
whether the pin and string are where you want them. I tend to think of it in
these terms: any action I do to the pin can be undone. If I move the pin the
smallest amount in the block, I can un-twist and/or un-flex it to the proper
pitch.

It's hard to explain with words. Like you said, we "so rarely do the same
thing twice in a row."

-- 
JF
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