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Comment by Jeremy Main on January 13, 2013 at 5:20pm

Headway! And some more D-whistle players too! I use a bagpipe fingering, with the flats of the middle joints, which mostly helps with that bottom note. We're so rare we're guaranteed a seat in any session, as there are not too many bass instruments around.

Comment by Dave Holeton on January 13, 2013 at 12:00pm

It sounds like you are on your way, Erich

For replacing strings there are differences between luthiers as to the method for string replacement along with string size (string size is very important).  Most luthiers provide information on string replacement with their psalteries.  If no information is available from the maker of your psaltery there are several luthiers that have instructions for replacing strings on psalteries.  Listed are 3 url's I found after I input "replace strings psaltery" in Google.

 

www.apsimplepsaltery.com/replacing.htm

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR1IQ0Wdf6A

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTpV2O_J-ew

 

Good Luck

Dave

 

 

Comment by Erich C. on January 13, 2013 at 11:23am

Hello Donna & Dave,

Yes - it works :-)

Getting rid of rosin-residue was easy and the strings shine like new! The least I can say for now is that the sound has improved too: mellower, smoother.

As to replacing strings I wonder if there is a worthwhile instruction video on "how to do it right" on the web you can recommend?

To answer your recorder-question: No,the bass recorder is not hard to play - in fact I find it much more comfortable than my tenor recorders which do not have keys (which would make playing a little easier). Other than being much more expensive and heavier (they are often played using a stringed support around the neck) fingering is quite comfortable. Aside from personal playing skill there is quite a range of quality to be found. I had a chance to test three models recently - 1. the new Mollenhauer/Denner 2. Huber/Switzerland and 3. Kueng Superio.

After 10 minutes of testing it was clear to me that Kueng was a winner. But you can sometimes find very good used recorders which weill make you -and your checkbook - happy too ;-)

Finally: The low D-whistle can be quite a challenge. That final buttom whole can be a real pain.

Comment by Donna Malus on January 13, 2013 at 10:33am

I have to clean my strings occasionally, particularly the wound strings. The rosin can build up until it's a barrier not an aid. Too much of a good thing and all that 

Erich, I would think replacing the original strings with higher quality ones might help. It's worth a try. 

I think the recorder is spectacular with the bowed psaltery. Is your bass recorder difficult to play? Particularly from a "wind" perspective?  I have a low D whistle and I haven't built up my windiness, , and find it difficult to play well. 

Comment by Erich C. on January 13, 2013 at 10:08am

Now that's a good point also to consider. Thanks for that comment, Dave. I see that all of you have spent much more time with your instruments than I have and I really appreciate your effort to help.  Hopefully the new bow I ordered will arrive this week, so I can compare that old one with a different model which comes with 'nylon hair'. I sure will try out all your suggestions.

Have a great Sunday :-)

Comment by Dave Holeton on January 13, 2013 at 9:17am

Erich

Your Ubi Caritas is nice, especially with the additional background track.

As for surface treatments, I obtained a baritone psaltery with wound strings early in 2012.  I played it every chance I got in the first 5 months.  I reached a point where the bow was sliding on many of the strings instead of sounding the strings.  It was becoming more and more difficult to find the correct "touch" for some of the strings.  I experimented with tightening and loosening the bow hairs which didn't seem to help.

The final fix was to use alcohol wipes to remove all of the rosin from the bows and the strings.  Surprisingly many of the problem strings sounded better immediately without rosin on the bows, but I needed to rosin the bows to obtain consistent sound on all strings.

I have an older psaltery with unwound strings and I have cleaned the strings with steel wool from time to time.  The instructions for that psaltery call for cleaning the bows from time to time with alcohol.  If I reach a point where I'm not happy with its sound, I might try alcohol wipes on the strings for it also.

If anyone wants to try alcohol wipes on psaltery strings, be sure to turn the psaltery so the strings are down (or toward the floor) to avoid any alcohol drips on the psaltery.

Thanks

Dave

Comment by Erich C. on January 13, 2013 at 1:17am

Interesting point indeed. I will have to think more about this as I practice. Compared to the strings on Rick's tenor-psalteries which are wound acoustic guitar strings, mine look more like cheap metal strings with a permanent layer of rosin sticking to their surface. Hopefully I can contribute more on this topic sometime next week. It may well be that the problems you have discribed here are the reason I put away my psaltery for more than a year.

Comment by Jeremy Main on January 13, 2013 at 12:57am

As a distinct study, has anyone experimented with using surface treatments of strings to make them resonate more easily? Slightly etching in acid, perhaps? On such small strings it's a delicate question, but none the less could improve the technology.

Comment by Jeremy Main on January 13, 2013 at 12:53am

It's not the bow, it's the strings. When I replace a string, I spend some time with an over-rosined bow transfering rosin onto all the surfaces of the string I am going to play against.I can hear a distinct difference on my instrument between a string lacking rosin and one which has been rosined, and I can hear it coming into voice, losing the scratchiness, as I transfer rosin off the bow. Yours seems to retain the scratchiness.

Violin players don't have this problem because they do not use wire strings. It might even be your Roumanian strings, what make are they? I use Romana, which are easily available from most German music shops. True, it might be the bow being too big for the instrument, but the fact you didn't notice I was talking about the strings rather than the bow suggests you may not have noticed it's also important to give the bow something to rub against.The scratching is the result of two surfaces bouncing against each other at high speeds, the rosin breaks the bounce down and turns it into vibration, which we hear as tone. But if it's only on one side, the bow, it'll still bounce rather than vibrate if the other side has insufficient rosin on for the bow to grip on.

Comment by Erich C. on January 12, 2013 at 4:06pm

Hello Jeremy,

Thanks for your advice. Yes, I too hear things I don't like - and, as you say - mainly a deficit of mellowness. Following Rick Long's suggestions to rosin the bow more frequently and still no real improvement, I ordered a handcrafted bow from him. It should arrive next week and I will see ...I mean hear if there is an audible difference along with more comfort in playing. I'll be glad to share my experiences in this forum.

The main problem however is: My instrument is not really a quality product. I bought it from www.folkfriends.com in Hamburg because they were the only suppliers I knew of at the time I wanted one. Their psalteries come from eastern Europe (mainly Rumania) and they are - at best - middle class.

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