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caeman
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Joined: 11 Dec 2008
Posts: 143
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 Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:04 am Post subject: Learning the Rebec |
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Last night, I bowed my new hand-made rebec for the first time. The first note was not entirely unpleasant, but was out of tune. The instrument is basically brand new and is still adjusting itself.
It is a quiet instrument. I should be able to practice on it without waking up my kids.
The maker installed a tiny piezo pickup inside for amplified playing and who doggy is that bugger sensitive. You can hear your fingers moving along the wood of the rebec!
The A-string peg is slipping, so a fiddle playing friend suggested I use some chalk to help with that. This week, I will looking for the notes on the finger board and putting small pieces of Post-It note paper to mark the spots. |
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caeman
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Joined: 11 Dec 2008
Posts: 143
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| From pegs to bridge, the distance is maybe 9 inches. I am learning of the tiny changes in the pegs, leading to large changes in tuning! Wow is this thing hard to tune! |
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Leucippus
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Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 10
Location: Pennsylvania
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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| caeman wrote: | | From pegs to bridge, the distance is maybe 9 inches. I am learning of the tiny changes in the pegs, leading to large changes in tuning! Wow is this thing hard to tune! |
What kind of strings are you using? Gut? Synthetic? Steel?
Gut strings should be fairly easy to tune but they will naturally go out of tune frequently until they have become stretched for some period of time.
Also, can you not use fine tuners on the tailpiece? Was the tailpiece made with holes the proper size to accept fine tuners?
Are you using loop-end strings or ball-end strings? Personally I'd use loop-end strings with those short compact loop-end fine tuners. I only use one fine-tuner on my violins. I don't know about your rebec. From the photo you posted in the other thread it didn't look like the tuning pegs had much of a knob. Do you use some sort of key to tune them?
I found on my violins that it doesn't take much inward pressure to hold the tuning. Too much inward pressure on the pegs can make them hard to tune.
What is the tuning on the Rebec? It has only three strings?
What notes are they? |
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caeman
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Joined: 11 Dec 2008
Posts: 143
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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| the tuning is DAE. We tried to keep the instrument historically more accurate on the outside, so we used gut strings. |
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Leucippus
Junior Member
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 10
Location: Pennsylvania
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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| caeman wrote: | | the tuning is DAE. We tried to keep the instrument historically more accurate on the outside, so we used gut strings. |
I don't know what to say then.
I have a gut-string violin and I find it extremely easy to tune. In fact, with gut string the pegs can even be quite "loose" and still hold the tension.
In fact, the very reason I put gut stings on this violin is because it has a very soft head and despite the fact that I installed brand new well-fitted pegs they still wouldn't hold the high tensions of synthetic or steel strings. So I strung it up with gut strings (which I wanted to try anyway). I found that with the gut strings the pegs hold just fine with very little inward pressure.
Of course this is a far longer neck than you have on a rebec. But it seems to me that a shorter neck should require even less tension on a string to obtain the the same note?
But then again, slight difference in tension would also have a greater affect on the pitch with a shorter neck too.
You might need to resort to fine tuners. You can use loop-end find tuners that don't really show up much at all. That might be your best bet. They would hardly be noticable. Get the really small ones in black with brass screws, they'll look good.  |
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