It's a pressure issue. The trompette is possibly too tight against the wheel, ie the string angle is too far from 90 degrees. The drones thing is a real bother. Have you tried using loads more cotton than normal?
Cheers, Jon On 26/7/06 18:47, "Matthew Szostak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At first I was considering this a discussion for makers, but it seems to me > now that it's more than that. This could, and dare I say, should, be of > interest to anyone who plays hurdy-gurdy and wants to keep their instrument > sounding and playing its best. > > As most of us understand, there are certain undesirable sounds associated > with the hurdy-gurdy that can generally be blamed on problems with string > pressure. There is a certain ideal pressure of string against wheel that > provides the right sound quality. I know that there is some room for > adjustment based on personal preference, but I think that most of us are > aware that, for example, if the melody strings press too hard against the > wheel, they will get scratchy-sounding and the upper notes on the keyboard > will likely not sound at all - we shim and move on. Also, if your low > wound drone strings press too hard against the wheel, then the pitch of the > note will vary widely with changes in wheel rotating speed. Simple > shimming might not be the easy answer here, but again, usually the culprit > is too much pressure, as long as everything else is in proper adjustment. > > I currently have a hurdy-gurdy that is in need of some basic adjustment to > get it up and running, but I'm having tuning problems which won't let me > alone. First of all, I adjusted the pressure of the melody strings on the > wheel to where they should (in my opinion) be, then I adjusted the cotton > on the strings and the rosin on the wheel so that I get a nice clean sound > over the whole range of the keyboard - no problem. > > Here's where things become interesting. First of all, the low drones now > tend to change pitch quite drastically when I make minor changes in > cranking speed. If I reduce the pressure, by even a little bit, the sound > of the string looses its fullness, it breaks into harmonics, and it won't > start playing cleanly from a full stop without giving it a pluck to help it > along. I cannot find a middle ground. > > But wait, there's more! This next particular problem was discussed here > before, but I'm not sure a satisfactory conclusion was ever reached. When > the chien is made to buzz, the pitch of the sound drops quite > dramatically. Now I know there has been disagreement, or at least > inconclusive discussion, about whether the frequency of the tapping chien > is the same as the vibrating frequency of the string; either way, the > overall effect here is that the trompette drone is tuned to one pitch, and > when the wheel rotating speed is increased a bit and the buzz produced, the > pitch of the combined sounds of string and chien is clearly reduced. I've > heard this effect on a number of recordings (even *gasp* Patrick Bouffard), > although it's rarely pronounced enough to distract or bother me. But this > instrument is suffering for it. > > At the time Marcello and Theo exchanged some interesting ideas, but my > question is: why would such problems appear now, years after it was > made? The geometry of the chien / string anchor point hasn't changed > (there's no obvious visual difference, anyway), but this hurdy-gurdy didn't > have this problem before. Is there any conclusive advice that can be given > to solve this problem, especially with the trompette? This thing sounds > great when you get it all tuned up, but as soon as you start buzzing, the > drones go sharp and the trompette goes flat and it's a real mess! Before I > start moving string anchor points around, I thought I'd see if anyone might > have some fresh ideas about this... > > ~ Matt >
