Would the slight circular motion of this track work? It would cross the string at a slight arc, wouldn't it? (As opposed to a dead 90o. unless it was a very small raised area). Would it be fretless? I'm presuming that you still have to push the string down to meet the wheel and there fore adjust where you put your fingers to allow for this. Isn't that the problem - the distance from the fingerboard and the extra distance the string has to move to make contact? Maybe I have missed something, it's late and I know zilch about construction anyway. I'll mind my own business. (But, like you, I always like a little musing on "improvements" and did once build a small string instrument like a mandolin with a pointy end (like an upside-down balalaika) and it actually played! (Badly as I cobbled it together rather crudely from some offcuts of wood I had lying around at the time but it worked). More power to your elbow and I hope it works. Don't forget to patent it and then share some pics of the prototype! Colin Hill
----- Original Message ----- From: Nathan Roy To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 11:18 PM Subject: [HG] Vertical Wheel Bow?! Okay, this is going to be an impetuously written message. I hope I don't make a fool of myself, but running across this concept has got me excited. My main hobby is sitting around theorizing about different experimental musical instruments, or innovative variations on existing forms. Most of them are probably pointless and naive, since I am neither a fine craftsman, nor an accomplished player in need of daring new challenges. Anyway... please bear with me while I attempt to describe my latest flight of fancy. The recent thread on the ninera got me thinking about how to use a fingerboard on a HG without messing up the tangential contact between string and wheel rim. Then I checked out the French site with the "vielloncelle", and that reminded me of Lark in the Morning's "bassgurdy", which is also a keyless, vertical wheel-bowed instrument. Now, both of these instruments appear to use gears to two separate the crank and wheel shafts at a ninety degree angle. Of course, this allows such an instrument to be held upright like a 'cello, cranked in the ordinary fashion, and bowed perpendicular to the strings. The drawback to this is that the gears would have to be machined very precisely to allow for sensitive cranking techniques, like tremolo or coups de poignet. Okay, so here's my modification of this: Imagine a long instrument with a single string, and a crank set in the side as in the vertical HG-like objects I just mentioned. However, the wheel bow is mounted directly on this one shaft, so that it rotates parallel to the string, rather than across it as expected. The obvious problem is that this bow cannot contact the string from below, against its circular rim, since that would be a dreadfully inefficient way to impart perpendicular vibration. Instead, the string runs beside it, down at a level toward the axle so as to approach forming a diameter. The bow then makes contact from the side, bowing upward against a raised track running along the outer edge of its flat surface. In theory, this bow orientation should work, since friction is still being applied at right angles to the string's long axis. But why would anyone want such a setup, since the historical HG design with a horizontal keyboard works as well or better than a vertical orientation. My serendipitous conclusion is that this would allow a fingerboard to be used without upsetting string pressure against the bow! Since this pressure is applied from the side, and adjusted by horizontal shims, bending the string downward should have little effect! Okay, I know the situation is much more complicated than this. The string would have to meet its bridge and be deflected toward the tail-piece before passing the wheel's opposite edge, or it would be bowed a second time, downward. Only two chanters could be bowed by a single disk (one to each side), and additional strings would require a series of parallel wheels mounted on the same axle. Drones could be stacked on top of each other, but this brings the bow direction out or perpendicular and requires more complex bridges. One benefit is that the vertical string vibration should propagate efficiently into the soundboard, like a piano, making the high violin-type bridge with its rocking impedance transfer unnecessary. Hopefully, some of you with more experience in practical matters of lutherie or acoustics can point out any obvious oversights I may have committed here. If the basic theory is sound, I think it would be great to do some experiments with the idea! I only wish my own skills were up to the job. (Otherwise I would have jealously guarded my supposed stroke of genius, although I assume there are no fortunes to be made in claiming such an innovation.) Anyway, sorry for my habitually long emails. Tell me what you think, and thanks for humoring me! Nathan Roy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i’m is proud to present Cause Effect, a series about real people making a difference. Learn more
