on 6/12/07 7:26 am, Rob at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Many years ago, when I got my first guittar with Preston machines, Martin > Haycock arranged for a craftsperson at West Dean College of instrument > making to refurbish the mechanism. I don't know who that was, but apparently > he knew a lot about the system. He did a first-class job. > > Rob > > www.rmguitar.info > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alexander Batov [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 06 December 2007 01:07 > To: cittern list > Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Preston tuner history > > On Tuesday, December 04, 2007 6:33 AM Martina Rosenberger wrote: > >> I have another question. >> As you have seen more than one Preston in your work: were there >> differences between the brass cases? If they had a "production line" look, > >> I assume none. >> Were the threads always the same? Were they in the same condition or were >> there problems with some of them (rust, oxidation, anything...) >> This will not help with the dating, but gives a clue to the way of making >> them........ > > Hello Martina, > > Well, I wish I paid more attention to such fine features at the time. It > never even occurred to me that anybody will be interested in watch tuners (I > certainly wasn't) ... but as I've already said Preston's all looked pretty > much identical. The Hoffmann's had a rather worn look (both the treads and > their square ends too, some almost totally rounded and so could only be > turned with a smaller size keys). > > Alexander > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > Dear Rob, Doc, Alexander et al,
West Dean (I've lectured there) has an antique clock repair department where I think your repair was done. Alternative would be to try a model engineering/railway club. Preston machines are really clock scale rather than watch-sized, and a lot of repairers specialize. My own, poor condition, unlabelled, guittar has very crudely made machines which anyone is welcome to see. Peter.
