Haitian Folk
Case Covers
Slip-Sliding Nylon Strings
Q Some time ago I borrowed the CD Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus from a friend. The music is very beautiful and I'd like to play it, but I can't find print editions for any of Casseus' works. Do you know where I can get his music?
Inge Borghmans
Antwerp, Belgium
A Haitian guitarist/composer Frantz Casseus (1915&endash;1993) deserves more recognition than he has received for creating solo classical guitar pieces from indigenous Haitian folk music. His professional life was colorful if not extremely glamorous. Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, he fashioned his first guitar from a box, strings, and old bicycle parts at age 12. By the time he moved to New York in 1946, he had already begun writing his own classical guitar compositions, which blended the melodies and rhythms of Haitian voodoo music with 19th-century classical guitar harmonies and techniques. Casseus recorded two albums for Folkways Records in 1953 and 1954 and penned the hit song "Merci Bon Dieu," which was recorded by Harry Belafonte and Hugh Masekela. Casseus died in Manhattan of heart failure in 1993 at age 77.
Primarily, Casseus earned his living as a guitar teacher. One of his students was jazz and classical guitarist Marc Ribot, the best-known exponent of Casseus' music. Ribot recorded his Haitian Suite twice, once on an album of the same name for Music of the World (PO Box 3620, Chapel Hill, NC, 27515-3620) and once on Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus. The latter recording is available through Ribot's Web page: www. musicians.org/soundink/mribot/ discog.html.
Sadly, Casseus' music has yet to be catalogued and published in its entirety. I have only discovered one source for print editions. In the 1970s, he compiled and edited two classical guitar anthologies for Ashley Publications/ Music Sales titled World's Favorite Selected Masterpieces for Classic Guitar, Volumes I and II (numbered 56 and 81 respectively in Ashley's "World's Favorite" series). In Volume II (which lists for $12.95), Casseus included three of his pieces: "Prelude," "Valse," and "Romance." According to Music Sales, it is one of the company's best-selling titles. If your local music store cannot get it, call Music Sales at (914) 469-2271.
--Mark L. Small
Q Can you recommend any insulated case covers? Which ones provide the most protection against temperature and humidity changes?
John Foley
Kansas City, Kansas
A Just how hot or cold do you intend to allow your guitar to get? I would consider the question of case covers only after exhausting all other possible ways to protect your guitar from the weather. If you wouldn't be physically comfortable in a given situation, neither would your guitar, so let's put the majority of your focus into the prevention category.
Let's take temperature first. You're having lunch in Dallas in August, and you leave your guitar in the car in the full sun for 90 minutes. Or you are playing music outside with some friends, take a break, put the guitar in its case, and leave it in the sun on the porch for 45 minutes. No guitar case cover will save your instrument from this kind of treatment.
Prevention is the smart solution--take your instrument to lunch with you. It doesn't eat much and it may be a pleasant conversation starter. If you must leave it in the car, park in the shade, or at least where the sun doesn't hit your instrument directly, and eat quickly! Outside, put your guitar in its case under a tree or under the porch.
My experience indicates that the inner guitar case itself plays a much more important role in humidity control than does the case cover, which is somewhat porous to water vapor. I suppose that one could be manufactured with plastic vapor barriers if this was a concern, but normally the humidifier inside the guitar case can deal with this problem adequately.
My ideal case cover would be a neutral beige or silver color, which would reflect much more heat than do the standard black ones, and it would be made from a tough nylon material. It would be thickly padded, which would add insulation and cradling for the bumps along the road. It would have a shoulder strap or clips for attaching one. It would have one heavy-duty, continuous zipper and possibly an external patch pocket. It would have bumpers or extra material along obvious stress and wear points. I use case covers that I have custom-ordered from Main Street Case Company (PO Box 81, Victor, ID 83455; [208] 787-2909); listings for several other companies can be found in the October '96 Gear Guide. I also throw a light-colored, synthetic-filled sleeping bag over all my instruments when traveling, both to disguise the contents and to slow the heating process even more.
--Chris Proctor
Q Is there some trick to attaching nylon strings to the tuning posts so they don't slip?
Wendy Goldberg
Pomona, California
A Over the years, I've learned to react to this question with some skepticism: the fact of the matter is that strings very seldom slip on their tuning machine posts. Any simple knot or crossover will ordinarily work. As long as the string doubles over on itself at least once on the post's curved surface (not as it emerges from the post hole), it will be effectively cinched. So why are so many people having so many problems?
The accidental loss of string tension and other tuning adversities are problems that defy simple analysis. Guitars can be infuriating--so many important things happen on them that are just not visible! Often folks who conclude that their strings are slipping react by tying all kinds of knots and then weaving the loose end of the string through the hole a few more times for good measure. By then they've created a mighty ball of twine on the post--and, maddeningly, the string still detunes.
What is likely to be happening? The strings detune for a host of reasons. People can't quite fathom how amazingly elastic nylon strings are. Beginners, especially, are incredulous at how you can keep winding nylon monofilament strings and still hear them detune themselves. Finally, at some point, the rate of detuning slows or seems to stop when the elastic limits of the fibrous structure of the string comes into some kind of precarious balance with the amount of tension being applied. Another complication is that as you tighten a string, the guitar itself flexes slightly and tends to detune the string's neighbors. Also, if you play hard for an extended period of time, you can coax the strings to stretch some more. And if you keep the guitar in a gig bag, the contact of the strings with the bag and the outside world can also coax them to stretch.
The notches in the nut can be V-shaped or too small, scissoring the string as you tighten it and causing inordinate tension to build between the post and the nut--pressure that can release slowly, or suddenly, at the nut, causing the string to detune. It is also very easy to tie the strings at the bridge in ways that allow the string to slip slowly there. If the final crossover of the loop lays on top rather than behind the tie block, some of the strings' pitch will surely drop as the knot slooowly tightens.
By the way, the detuning works both ways, because nylon has a "memory." If you tighten a nylon string way, way up, way past its correct pitch, let it settle a while, and then bring it down to correct pitch, its pitch will creep . . . up.
--William R. Cumpiano
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