> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:13:19 EDT > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], > [email protected] > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Pedro Cabrals answer >
> But how likely is it that the rather bizarre, "Heath Robinson"-looking > (though effective) Preston's machines could have been invented three times? > Why did they come to be used on the English guitar, the Portuguese guitarra > and the German Waldzither - and nowhere else! > > ? > > Cheers, > John D. > Thanks for turning me on to "Heath Robinson" ;-) Those tuners always did make me scratch my head a bit. I guess they were pretty ingenious for use with wire pre individual geared-machine tuners. I imagine there'd be less initial slippage with them than even on the later machines, and fine-tuning too would be far easier than with ancient friction pegs. (I've never experienced Preston tuners first hand yet). Was anyone ever smart enough to provide some place/way to keep the key _with_ the instrument, some compartment, clip, or leash-tie? Is there consensus that Preston was indeed the first? Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
