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Tiple
Tuning
Q
I just bought
a 12-string tiple from Colombia, but I have no idea how to string
it or tune it. Can you help?
John
Ievolo
North Massapequa, New York
| A
The Colombian tiple, from the Castilian Spanish for
"soprano" or "high-voiced," is a 19th-century
Creole adaptation of the Spanish guitar and looks like an
unusually deep Spanish guitar that has been shrunk by a third.
Colombians replaced the guitar's six nylon strings with 12
spidery-thin steel strings, arrayed in four triple-string
courses. As musical accompaniment to the traditional Bambuco
dances, the tiple forms the basis of Colombia's musical folk
traditions. Its thin, tightly-wound strings make a distinctive
and wonderful shimmering noise that sounds like Latin angels
descending from heaven. If you can play guitar, you can probably
play the tiple, and nowadays, as a change of pace, more and
more guitarists are picking up these instruments for their
unique sound textures. The tiple's four courses of strings
are tuned an octave higher than the first four strings of
a guitar (D G B E), but conventional guitar strings won't
get you very far. Somewhat surprisingly, at least two major
string companies (La Bella and GHS) produce sets specifically
for the Colombian tiple.
—William Cumpiano
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A Columbian tiple.
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R&R
for Injured Hands
Q
My left hand really hurts after a practice session.
It's gotten to the point where it's even painful when I play. Should
I just play through the aching? What else can I do?
Steven Schnug
Colorado Springs, Colorado
A
When you feel
pain, stop playing the guitar immediately. There is no point in
trying to push through hand pain. The sooner you catch a hand injury,
the less likely you will suffer permanent damage. This is an athletic
injury and should be treated like one, with ice and perhaps an anti-inflammatory
like ibuprofen. A great many physical therapists now specialize
in musicians' issues, and you may want to consult one. At the very
least, for the next few days or weeks, try to use your hands less
in all activities—typing, doing dishes, woodworking,
even driving a car.
Resting your hands will
put you on the path to recovery but can be extremely difficult.
Left with idle hands and the urge to be musical, some musicians
fall into depression, which exacerbates the problem. Instead, challenge
your old practice routines and try hands-off guitar practice. Use
your normal practice time to visualize playing guitar while reading
new or old music. You can even visualize scales or arpeggios. Sing
the pieces you play on guitar, even if you're not a singer, or start
learning to sight-sing music. Interestingly, when I injured my hands
and limited myself to these mental and vocal exercises, I found
that my attention to and familiarity with the guitar improved dramatically.
I now use these techniques as a complement to regular guitar practice.
After your hands have
healed, be proactive. To prevent the injury from recurring, you
might look into yoga, the Alexander Technique, or Feldenkrais Method.
As many hand problems are the result of bad posture, these techniques
can help you develop good posture while practicing guitar. You should
also stretch your arms and hands and take more breaks while practicing.
And think about keeping fingerless techniques in your practice routine.
—Ben
Harbert
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Pinpointing
Tone
Q
I routinely
see bridge pins advertised with claims that they improve a guitar's
tone. How can that work? Doesn't all the transmission of string
vibration happen through the saddle and (to a lesser extent) the
nut?
Alan
Deeter
Atlanta, Georgia
A
The impact of bridge pins on the tone of a guitar is a complex
and (moderately) controversial question. Many elements go into creating
tone. Most builders believe that the top—and all of its myriad
elements, including the wood, thickness, design, and sizing of the
bracing, bridge, and saddle—is the most important part of
the guitar for tone production. Since the bridge pins are part of
the top, they do have some, probably minor, impact on tone. How
does this work? The bridge pin is located at the point where the
energy of the string is transferred to the top. What the pin should
do, ideally, is impede that transfer of energy as little as possible.
So it seems logical that, within limits, a harder, denser material
such as bone or ivory will transmit the energy better than a soft,
malleable material such as plastic. The real question should be,
how will this affect your guitar's tone? The only way to find out
is by testing. Put on a new set of strings and your present pins.
Play the guitar for a few minutes. Then try a different kind of
pins, perhaps ebony or bone, something that will not break the bank.
If you do notice an improvement in tone, you might then try one
of the really fancy pins such as fossil ivory. Bottom line: trust
your own ear.
—Charlie Hoffman
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Excerpted from
Acoustic Guitar magazine,
March
2003, No. 135.
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