<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></FONT><br> <div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 3px"><PRE><TT>I feel to see if all the strings are in the same plane. I don't like the idea of the bubble level because if the floor isn't perfectly level and the plate isn't perfectly level, or if the holes in the agraffe aren't perfectly level, you're getting a false indication.</PRE></TT></BLOCKQUOTE></div> <div>David</div> <div> </div> <div>Before leveling the strings with the bubble gauge, put it on the plate. If you see the bubble is to one side or another, then match that to the strings. But in all the pianos I've done this way,  I've only had one or two show that the plate, and/or piano, was not level. Your finger can't match what the gauge does. The gauge will tell you instantly which of the three strings is high or low. In most cases, it is the aggraff that's at fault. So you have to compensate by leveling the strings. That's the whole purpose of doing this in the first place. Once the strings are level, matching the hammers is much easier, and they will all look the same. </div> <div> </div> <div>Wim </div> <div> </div> <div> <br> <br> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both"></div> <br> <br> <div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-----Original Message-----<br> From: David Nereson <da88ve@gmail.com><br> To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org><br> Sent: Thu, Mar 3, 2011 2:48 am<br> Subject: Re: [pianotech] problem in mating hammers to strings<br> <br> <div style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff; MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; COLOR: #000; FONT-SIZE: 12px" id=AOLMsgPart_0_4b872643-0abf-4451-8973-7296b6ef8478><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><TT> I feel to see if all the strings are in the same plane. I don't like the idea of the bubble level because if the floor isn't perfectly level and the plate isn't perfectly level, or if the holes in the agraffe aren't perfectly level, you're getting a false indication. But regardless, when viewing the hammer line at the strike point, it should appear as a straight line, so that's how I filed them. I then held hammers against the strings, plucking the strings, and still found indications that the hammers had high areas, or that a right string was low, and again, almost all in the low tenor, and all on the right side of the hammer. So I used the plexiglass paddle with a thin (3/16") strip of sandpaper glued to it, as demonstrated by either Andre Oorebeek or Ben Gac, I believe, to file down the hammer in the area that damps the strings that don't ring when plucked. This results in hammers that have a "step" in the strike point surface, but using the end of a steel rule and a bright light, I did not observe any low ("unlevel") strings in the corresponding unisons. I still wonder if the pressure of holding an angle-bored hammer against the unison causes the shank to flex or the hammer to lean. --David Nereson, RPT </TT></PRE></div> </div> </font>