Ian,
A couple of things to consider:
1. Insufficient shimming tends to do what you describe because it
leaves the pressure too heavy on the wheel. The lower notes are less
prone to screeching than the high ones. In my experience, shimming is
the most likely issue for me, but then I don't find cottoning a big
deal now (it used to seem like a black art), and I *never* have rosin
trouble (see below for why), unless I've got too little. Since you
qualify yourself as a new player, I would expect cotton or rosin could
be an issue.
2. Too much cotton can do the same thing for the same reason: too much
pressure on the wheel. The effects are similar to too little shimming.
Since you already replaced the cotton, I don't think it's something
particular to one cottoning job (sometimes cotton just gets grotty and
has to be replaced), but it may be that you've put on too much. How do
you know if it's too much? Well, it depends on your instrument and how
you've set it up: what's too much on one instrument may be too little
on another (particularly true if you leave the realm of French-style
instruments as Hungarian instrument take a *lot* more cotton than
French ones).
3. In general, I'm going to contradict what you always hear and say
too much rosin is seldom the issue. *Improperly applied* rosin is much
more likely to be a problem. When applying rosin what is absolutely
critical is that the cake is perfectly smooth and that you move it
gently back and forth across the face of the wheel while turning it.
Usually when someone has too much rosin, what has happened is that
they have held the cake in one position, so ridges of rosin have
built up on the surface of the wheel and then broken under pressure,
leaving tiny shards of rosin all over the wheel surface. This will
wreak havoc on your sound. Moving a good smooth cake back and forth
ensures that any irregularities in the rosin cake can't build up.
Many new players are so scared of using "too much" rosin that they
don't use enough, resulting in weak tone! If rosin is properly applied
it is almost impossible to get too much on the wheel: the rosin will
form a smooth coating that just gets thicker. As long as it isn't
uneven, it won't break and powder on you, so you won't have problems
from it. When you hold a cloth to a wheel with too much rosin and turn
it, what you're really doing is flattening out the surface and
smoothing it, as Colin correctly notes, rather than removing it from
the wheel.
I hope this helps you out. Since I don't know what you've done
already, my observations may be more or less useful, but they may also
help you out.
Best,
Arle
On Dec 15, 2007, at 4:39 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello, all,
Maybe just chalk this one up to me being a relatively new player,
but I need some advice about a terrible sound the instrument is
making. First, the lower notes seem fine, but when I advance up the
scale to the C and certainly by the G (G/C instrument), the thing
just screeches uncontrolably. It often makes a rapid skipping sound
when the tangents of the higher notes are engaged. To help the
problem, I've tried the following measures, dutifully carried out
after taking Cali Hackman's maintenance class this Fall:
1. Changed cotton twice. This helped initially.
2. Tried more rosin
3. Removed all the rosin from the wheel, then added a little bit
more. This helped for about 12 seconds.
4. Shimmed the chantrelle after I perceived the string might not be
resting symetrically on the string.
So, all you veterans out there - any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
-Ian Clemons, Portland Oregon
