Arle--
The bad tone I've experienced at the high end of my 438mm d' chanter
was mainly scratchy. I've had the anomalies as well, and they seemed to
have been alleviated with adjustments to string pressure, cotton, and rosin.
I don't play a lot, and hadn't for some time; I was just slowly cranking
(real slow--which seems fine in the lower end), dreamily absorbing some
nice, rich pure intervals in the lower range. The clean and even tone in
the lower register leads me to believe my cotton, rosin and pressure were
OK. When I tested some high notes I found that picking up the cps helped a
bit. I'm also about to experiment with a slightly lighter gauge chanter,
using less tension for my pitch. (I'm currently at about 6 kg, and a little
less tension helps some -- like tuning to c#' instead of d'.)
On the subject of rosin: is there a particular type that is
preferable? Violin, 'cello, bass? Powdered, block? I think I've gotten a
good coat on my wheel, polished with a piece of flannel.
Thanks,
Leonard
On 9/1/09 9:38 AM, "Arle Lommel" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi Leonard,
>
> What sort of tone problems are you experiencing? Scratchiness, thin
> sound, warbling, pitch instability, screeching? All are possible and
> mean different things. Poor tone quality can mean many things, so
> anything more specific you could provide would help in diagnosing the
> problem.
>
> My initial thought is that you should look at three factors: cotton,
> shimming, and rosin. The high end is more sensitive to these factors
> and if you've got problems with them you'd expect to hear them up
> there. In general the high end of the range is by far the most
> sensitive to problems and anything over the high C (on a C/G
> instrument) will be particularly sensitive. Without more description
> of the precise sound it's hard to say what might be a factor.
>
> My hunch, however, is you should look at your use of rosin. One easy
> experiment that might give you an answer: if the sound is too tenuous
> and lacks a rich response, try adding more rosin. Many players,
> particularly those relatively new to the instrument, don't use enough
> rosin. If you're using too little rosin cranking faster would, to a
> limited extent, make up for the lack of rosin and improve (but not
> entirely) fix the tone. The reason is that if you have too little
> rosin you aren't able to efficiently transfer the energy of the wheel
> into the strings. Cranking faster puts more energy into the system.
> While it doesn't improve the efficiency, it does ensure that more
> energy ends up in the strings (through brute force), leading to an
> improvement in tone. The top end will be more sensitive here because
> higher frequencies correspond to higher energy states, meaning that
> the inefficiency becomes more pronounced at higher pitches. You want
> to have a transference of energy that is as efficient as it can be
> without overloading the strings. The beautiful thing about rosin is
> that it encourages slip-stick friction that works with the natural
> capacities of the strings, so you really can't use too much rosin as
> long as you apply it correctly.
>
> (Alden, I still intend to create a video on applying rosin, and I've
> scripted it out and listed all of the shots needed to do it right, but
> I've realized it's a *lot* of work to do it right. I want a video no
> more than ten minutes in length, but that will take about four to five
> hours of raw footage plus editing to get right. That's why it's not
> surfaced thus far at all.)
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Arle
>
> On Aug 31, 2009, at 4:40 PM, Leonard Williams wrote:
>
>>
>> I've posted recently concerning poor tone quality at the high end of
>> the
>> chanterelle. I've been experimenting with tension, pressure, and
>> string
>> diameter. One more factor comes to mind: crank speed. I've
>> noticed an
>> improvement in tone with greater rpm's. Is this a typical trait of
>> hurdy-gurdies, or a peculiarity of mine??
>> Regards,
>> Leonard Williams
>> _
>> [: :]
>> / | | \
>> | | | |
>> (_==_)
>> !~¿
>
>
> >
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