square

[Susan Kline]

At 06:58 PM 6/28/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Failing that, get out your extension hammer and back brace.

Back when I used to do these square not-so-grands, I used the little
extender which is intended to give a little height to get over tall
grand struts. You know, the bottom has threading for a tuning tip,
and the top side looks a little like a tuning pin.

Often, squares have oblong pins, which is a fuss, since
you can't use a star tip on them. You end up with two choices for hammer
position instead of eight (if you even have the oblong tip.)

By using the extender, your normal star tip will fit on the top,
with the oblong tuning tip threaded to the bottom, so you
have eight choices of tuning hammer position again. Also, keeping
track of where you are with those closely spaced steeply
angled strings can be a chore. It's easier to move
the extender from one pin to another than to guess with the whole tuning
hammer.

On the downside, by the time you put your lever onto the extender,
you have a sort of wobbly little tower. I use the short tuning tip,
which helps a little bit.

I stopped accepting squares about 15 years ago. Too hard on the back,
and once in awhile one of them can be really touchy about breaking
bass strings. I refer people to Joe Garrett, who luckily isn't all
that far away.

Susan