[CAUT] hammer line

[Jim Busby]

Alan,

This looks like what Dale Erwin does to all Bs. Did you attend that class? I've always been a bit afraid of making this kind of funkyfied hammer-line. You're only the second person I've known crazy enough to actually do it! I guess I'll try it now.

Regards, Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan McCoy
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 1:17 PM
To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Subject: [CAUT] FW: hammer line

Hello folks,

Thought I'd share this photo. I ruined a perfectly straight hammer line on a
1898 S&S A. It was the most dramatic hammer line problem I have encountered.
I moved the top hammer of the first capo region about 3/16" toward the capo,
and the lowest hammer of the top capo region about 1/8" toward the capo. For
both areas I thought I'd taper the hammer line all the way to the other end.
But as it turned out I only needed to start the taper (according to my ear)
at the half-way point (G5 up to the break, and D7 down to the break).

This area had always sounded funky and I was trying to find out why. I
couldn't believe how much improvement this made.

I know that these hammers and shanks were put on about 10 or 12 years ago,
but I don't know if the originals were hung straight or not. I wonder when
S&S figured out they needed to grind the capo out toward the bridge. There
was plenty of room on the capo to just grind it, rather than have to recast
the whole capo bar.

Alan


-- Alan McCoy, RPT
Eastern Washington University
amccoy at mail.ewu.edu
509-359-4627