Dear Chris,
I see no disadvantage with the very slight added weight
My 11-string guitar has 11 metal tuning machines and I have
no trouble holding it for long periods of time. In any case,
you could always get a strap or a piece of silk if it became
a problem. It is a very small price to pay for great efficiency,
linearity in pitch vs. angle, and exactness of pitch without a
big hassle and worry about environmental changes.
As for bowed strings, I don't know about your violins,
but mine have small machine tuners at the loop end of
the strings. You can install them very easily and coarse
tune with the pegs. To get the fine tuning, you use the
machines. The fact that these machine tuners are
readily available is proof positive that the pegs don't
work very well at all, especially for the short
diapasons of violins.
If lutes had them we would not have so much trouble
tuning. However, we all are in this long-term
worship service of historical accuracy and no one
would dare modify anything on a lute if it looked
modern just to be efficient.
It might be pointed out that the design of the lutes that
we use today was the state of the art during the 16th
and 17h centuries, for example. Modern luthiers have
copied, this design with no attempt to update it, all out of
concern for historical accuracy. If the luthiers of the 16th
and 17th century had had access to better technology, they
would have had the practical wisdom to used it.
Modern luthiers will make anything we order. We order
the old designs, then we pay for it in terms of time
wasted on tuning when we could be composing or
sending email messages to our lute friends all across
the world.
Best regards,
Marion
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Apr 4, 2005 2:15 PM
To: "Dr. Marion Ceruti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Vance Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
lute list <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>, Caroline Usher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Newbie Question #2
Marion,
I see an advantage to pegs: weight! I can't
imaging how much the pegbox of a 13-course baroque
lute would weigh with metal tuning machines. My
ten-course was a real balancing act when I got it
without having to deal with even more uneven weight
distribution. Also, pegs seem to work pretty well for
modern bowed strings with metal strings and high
tension (with the exception of the bass, of course).
Chris
--- "Dr. Marion Ceruti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Vance Wood wrote:
>
> "However there is an historical accuracy not touched
> on and that is the limits of
> expediency in addressing some of the same problems
> that seem to plague us."
>
> ++I agree with Vance on this one.
> Whether we like it or not, we are stuck with
> historical accuracy.
> This past weekend I brought my 8c ren lute from the
> coast where
> it is cool and (relatively) damp to the desert where
> it is hot and dry.
> It took me an hour to tune, pegs being the way they
> are. If we
> were more interested in efficiency than were were in
> historical
> accuracy we would be using machine tuning. I can
> tune three
> or four strings on a modern instrument to within 1/4
> cent accuracy
> (the limit of the gauge) in the time it takes to
> tune one string
> on a peg given a change in ambient temperature or
> humidity.
>
> I can see some advantage in movable frets, but I
> really see no
> advantage whatsoever in pegs, other than the
> historical significance.
> Historical accuracy comes with a very high pricetag
> in terms of
> time wasted that otherwise could be used for
> practicing.
>
> Best regards,
> Marion
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vance Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Apr 4, 2005 12:22 PM
> To: lute list <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>, Caroline
> Usher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Newbie Question #2
>
> Dear Caroline:
>
> In the context this was written------Yes. When it
> comes to understanding
> the instrument, the music and the
> player/authors------No. In answered to
> the question we? If that means you wish to exclude
> yourself from that
> painting with a broad brush I would like to hear
> your thoughts. If you mean
> that I am caught up in historical accuracy, which
> incidentally is not so
> because I cannot afford it, and should have not used
> the word "We" I stand
> corrected. However from the way things tend to go
> on this list it would
> seem that most are very much centered on historical
> accuracy. However there
> is an historical accuracy not touched on and that is
> the limits of
> expediency in addressing some of the same problems
> that seem to plague us.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Caroline Usher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "lute list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 12:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Newbie Question #2
>
>
> > At 11:29 AM 4/3/2005, Vance Wood wrote:
> > >I think sometimes we get too caught up in the
> historical accuracy of what
> it
> > >is we do.
> >
> > What you mean we, white man?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ;-)
> > Caroline
> > Caroline Usher
> > DCMB Administrative Coordinator
> > 613-8155, Box 91000
> > B343 LSRC
> >
> >
> >
> > To get on or off this list see list information at
> >
>
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
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