Got a new problem I've never encountered before that maybe has an easy fix I'm missing.
Today I broke my low chanterelle on my C/G instrument. It was a metal wound viola string from Croatia that had held up remarkably well and had a beautiful trombone like tone. It was tuned an octave lower than the standard chanterelles (i.e., the open string is in unison with the mouche). So I rummaged through my kit and found that I don't have a replacement any more. I thought I did but maybe gave it to someone. Ahh, but what's this? A black gut string that looks like it might be the right gauge. So I put this black gut string on (it was a spare for my tekerőlant). Got the pressure right without cotton (using a slip of paper to check the pressure) and started working with it. Took a bunch of cotton to sound right compared to the old metal string, but tekerő strings often do take a lot of cotton. But now the problem is that the upper sixth of the string sounds very sharp, so sharp I can't turn the tangents back far enough in some cases to get it to sound right. So I play around and pop the nut out and slide it as far forward as the thing can possibly go. No dice. It helps a little, but I still cannot get the lower string to have a decent tangent distribution in that range and two of them can't be brought into tune at all because they are colliding with the keys below them. I've fiddled with the cotton quite a bit and can't seem to get it to make an impact there. The tone is absolutely beautiful, so it's not the shimming. I just can't get this to go in tune in that region at all. Maybe there is something obvious that I'm missing, but this string just doesn't work like the strings I'm used to on this instrument. (I also had a lot of fun because my two-year old daughter decided to help me play tonight and, while my back was turned, managed to wipe her hands on the wheel, instantly killing two spots of wheel death. This is the first time she's actually touched the wheel surface, probably because every other time she's tried I've redirected her energies. Normally I can deal with that sort of thing without the need for drastic measures, but the grease from her hands was stubborn and I had to strip the wheel and rebuild the rosin coat from the ground up. Uggh.) So it's one of those gurdy days. Anyone care to take a stab at what might make the low chanterelle behave better? -Arle --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
