Hi Claire, Measure the distance between the bridge and the center of the post on the octave tangent, then measure the distance between the octave tangent and the nut. They should be the same distance. If the bridge side is off you will need to adjust the bridge, if the nut is off you need to adjust the nut. Also, in a properly designed keybox, the distance from the octave tangent to the last tangent is the same as the distance from the bridge to the last tangent.
The rule is basically that the nut adjusts the lower half (nut to octave) portion of the tangents, while the bridge adjusts the upper half (octave to bridge) portion of the tangents. The foot of the bridge, in most cases, should rest half on-half off (on the wheel side) of the rear brace. Look for the pins that hold the brace and guestimate the proper placement based on what you can see or hear by tapping or looking inside. Hope this helps, Scott Gayman [email protected] wrote: >Hi everyone >My gurdy was made in the 80s by a non-specialist luthier and has some >features that are not general - perhaps other makers have more sense. One >of these is that the bridge 'floats' - it's only held down by the strings, >and an adjustable tension cord (tirant) to the tailpiece. Not only can the >foot move, the top of the bridge can change position either with the >tirant or just with the tension of the strings. I've been having some >problems with balance between strings and a more experienced played >suggeseted that the moving bridge might be part of the problem and that I >should think about glueing it down. That makes sense BUT before I can do >that I need to know where to put it. >That leads on to the issue with my nut/tangent interaction: I've just >retuned the strings, measuring carefully so that the tangent for the >middle D hits the string half way between nut and bridge. That worked for >the high chanter - but if I put the nut for the low chanter even with the >high one, the tangents are too high. I can tune middle D, E and F - but >over that they are about 1/4 tone too high and I can't push the tangent >far enough down. I can get the tangents on the low chanter straight and >lined up with the high chanter BUT only if I move the nut about 5mm away >from the bridge so the string is 5mm longer on the low octave than the >high octave. >Am I missing something? Should I be worried? What will happen if I glue >down the bridge? >Advice please - I'm 3 hours from the nearest luthier. >Thanks > >Clare > > >-- >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. -- 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.
