Hi Leonard, Your description doesn't sound like rosin after all (I was assuming weak tone in what I wrote), but rather like your string needs more shimming. Again, at the high end you'll find problems you don't at the low end. I'd be willing to bet that with a bit more shimming you'd end up OK. Unfortunately you're in an area where only experience can help get things right and even then sometimes you'll want to throw your hands up in despair. If you can, use tissue, cigarette, or bible paper (that's the real term for the really light paper used to print bibles), and add just a bit to your shims. My guess is that you'll find an improvement. I'm not sure about the speed issue in that case. Maybe someone else has an idea.
Regarding rosin, I use two kinds, depending on the weather. In summer I use a lighter violin rosin, In winter I use a darker, stickier viola rosin. The reason for this is that summer heat and humidity will make rosin stickier than it will be in the winter, so I switch to the lighter one in the summer and keep the darker stuff for the winter. The actual impact will vary depending on your location and weather, so a recommendation one person swears by may not be as good for you. Regarding block versus powdered: I used to use powdered rosin with a felt applicator and used to recommend it. It has the advantage of never giving you a jagged surface and being almost impossible to mess up. But notice that I used to use it: Powder is messy and I managed to get rosin dust in the head bearing of my instrument. The result is a rhythmic squeak when I'm playing that annoys me. When I have time I now need to unstring the instrument, pull the shaft, take out the wheel, and clean the bearing. Not worth it in general. (On the other hand some of the best players I know swear by powder, so my experience may not be representative.) So now I use block rosin. I've never gone in for the gold flecks or anything like that, and the best rosin I've had was some cheap, very light Croatian violin rosin. I've lost that block, however. But any block that's got a good flat face should be OK. Try some different ones to see what you like. -Arle On Sep 1, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Leonard Williams wrote: > > 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 >>> _ >>> [: :] >>> / | | \ >>> | | | | >>> (_==_) >>> !~¿ >> >> >>> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
