If it is too hot for you to sit in the car, with all the windows closed, in the direct sun, without sweating - it is too hot for your instrument. Never leave any of your instruments in the car on a hot day. Do not display any instrument anywhere that will be exposed to sun as the light moves across your room during the day. Direct sunlight is hot enough to soften the glues in your instrument and weaken or destroy the joints in the piece. Luthiers purposefully use wood glues which soften when heated (to 145F) so that an instrument can be disassembled for service when necessary. Heat joins sudden change as the other serious menace to instruments. It is only when the instrument is left in the cold for a long period that you need to go through a warm-up procedure. If you take your wrapped instrument from your warm house, to the inside of your warm car, to the warm inside of a building, do not worry at all.
#Stringed instrument zip
If your instrument is still icy when you open the case, zip it back up and wait a while longer. Once you arrive at your destination, keep the instrument cased or wrapped until the outside of the case has been at room temperature for several hours. If not, wrap the instrument in blankets or towels.
When going from warm to cold or cold to warm, your instrument needs to be insulated. The only really dangerous element of cold for stringed instruments is sudden temperature change. Check all 4 strings to get the best compromise of bridge position, perfection is not physically possible. Mandolin and Banjo bridges move! They should be placed so that the note fretted at the 12th is in tune with the harmonic at the 12th fret, usually at a slight angle with the treble end closer to the nut and the bass end closer to the bottom. First check that it is in the right position (see intonation), then slacken the strings, turn the adjusting screws to raise the height a little, tune up and re check. Third: The adjustable bridge may be too low. The slot can be deepened with a penknife or a needle file. Second: It is common where there is a zero fret (i.e: the strings pass through the nut slots straight on to a fret) for the the slot behind the fret not to be cut deep enough for the string to touch the zero fret. On better quality instruments where there is a separate cover plate a piece of felt stuck to the underside will cure it.
you may find there is a metallic rattle on the odd string when you first tune them up.įirst: check that the cover on the tailpiece is not touching the strings, if it is, bend it up.
You can't move the bridge once it is tuned. Do this both top and bottom, then check the middle too before continuing with the tuning on the rest of the strings. Then move the bridge until you get a perfect fifth by sounding the strings either side of the bridge. Tune just the top and bottom courses so you can still move the bridge. Another useful tip when tuning harps, hammered dulcimers & zithers is to first tune roughly to a diatonic scale, then get the Cs right, then go round in the circle of 5ths, first playing the Gs with the Cs, then the Ds with the Gs etc.īefore you tune a hammered dulcimer you need to get the middle bridge in exactly the right position. First week tune up a tone and a half flat, then increase the tension a semitone at a time over the next week or so. Harps should be brought up to pitch gradually, in stages as the wood of the front needs to take up a slightly curved shape with the tension of the strings. Tune up slowly, and make sure you have a pitch pipe or tuning meter handy, and that you know the correct tuning so you don't over tighten the strings. The most likely time for the strings to snap unexpectedly is on their first tuning, and it is important to keep your eyes out of the way. Take care when first tuning any stringed instrument to turn it away from you. THE HOBGOBLIN INFO SOURCE HOBGOBLIN INDEX PAGE
#Stringed instrument how to
Stringed Instrument Care CONTACT | HOW TO ORDER - TERMS & CONDITIONS | FRONT PAGE
0 kommentar(er)
