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Todd
French 
Moderator
Posts: 211
(7/9/01 7:57:56 pm)
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Tips for cello
buzzes - a survey
Hi all, it's summer again and that means its time for my Nicolas
Vuillaume (with all its wonderful repaired cracks) to start to open
up at the most inopportune places, such as a cleat that I can't
reach...
Anyway, so far so good, but I did want to start a
little survey of any tips anyone might have on how to get rid of
buzzes because we all have them, and many of us know a few little
tricks :-)
Lately the one that has worked well for me is to
squeeze the tailpin hanger together slightly. It makes a snapping
noise (might scare you off) but it often works. I assume that the
tailpiece hanger (nylon) is sitting funny on the saddle, and
therefore is vibrating just a bit, or, perhaps the minor adjustment
just puts whatever the problem is into place. I have no idea, it
just works for me sometimes.
Another fascinating trick is
just to bend down and tighten your endpin screw. You'd be surprised
how many times your rattling is caused by your endpin, particulalry
if you have a Wiesshaar style endpin.
Last tip from me (these
are all easy ones) is to manipulate your fine tuners from side to
side. Besides checking if the lock nut is screwed on tightly, this
is the most surefire way of curing the fine tuner rattles, which
happens to be the #1 cause of buzzing on cellos. (problem solved for
those of you who have Harmonie tailpieces or some like product with
built in fine tuners of a composite (non-metal) material.
Any
other tips?
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MCopeland
Registered User
Posts: 18
(7/9/01 8:50:30 pm)
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Tips for cello
buzzes - a survey
Be careful about what you are wearing! Buttons, zippers, jewelry
etc. can cause your cello to buzz. I was at a chamber workshop and
listening to a cellist play with a quintet. She had worn a blue jean
vest and a skirt with metal buttons up the front. In addition she
had her plastic name card pinned to her vest. Everything was going
well until the card started to get in the way of her bowing. She did
her best to bat it away. I don't know if all the movement caused her
clothes to contact the cello but then...you could hear a buzz. It
was from all the buttons on her clothes. Sometimes a cello buzz can
also involve the music stand. The poor woman was very bothered by
her buzzing but could not do a thing about it.
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TerryM
Registered
User
Posts: 455
(7/10/01 8:41:58
am)
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Re: Tips for
cello buzzes - a survey
Another source of buzzing can come from a nut that has improperly
cut grooves. The groove in the nut should be highest in front and
gently sloping back to the pegbox. If the back of the groove is
slightly higher than the front, the string will touch the wood of
the front of the groove and create a buzzing sound on the open
string. This problem will probably not occur on a cello that has
been played for a while, but new strings of a different diameter
than the previous string could create a problem. Loose ends of
strings in the pegbox can sometimes create problems as
well.
Terry
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