> From: David Kilpatrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:04:11 +0100 > To: "Roger E. Blumberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, cittern > <[email protected]> > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Pedro Cabrals answer > > Roger E. Blumberg wrote: > >> >> 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?
> The tuners date from 1743 according to the best info Thanks David. I didn't know they came so early. > though the date > 1734 is frequently quoted. I believe this is an error from an American > museum catalogue. I use a ribbon to attach my key, so does Rob McKillop. > It works well. The key sits in a tuner all the time when playing. > Preston tuners prevent damage . . . to the tuners and peg-box themselves, I guess you mean -- makes sense, didn't think of that. > you can just get the right tension with > brass or iron wire, and no more. They can not be used with copper wire > (I have tried) as the wire stretches too much for the degree of travel > to work. when you say iron do you mean iron? Is it an alloy mix of some kind? Sounds like it would be brittle, and corrosive. Are they hard on the fingers, hard on the frets and fretboard, more so that modern steel strings? > There were already machine-heads more or less like modern ones, around > at the same time as the Preston tuner. that's news to me as well > My Preston tuner was originally > gold-plated and must have looked fantastic on the instrument, which also > has a gold-plated brass rose. Gold, ivory, ebony, etc yet decoration > painted on using indian ink black (probably squid) and red (probably gum > draco or dragon's blood, used as a red colourant for instrument > varnishes, but providing a nice red lacquer when used neat). > > David Sounds purdy. I have seen, and love, that red. I wouldn't have guessed a metal rose. danka Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
