Cello-tuning-filter

May 4, 2011 5:44 PM

I'm putting a new string on my cello for the first time. How close should I be able to get with the pegs before switching to the fine tuners? In other words, how powerful are the finer tuners? (It might be cello-dependent, I don't know.)
posted by hoyland to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Very, very close. You should be fairly happy with the peg tuning as is before you move to the fine tuners.
posted by halogen at 5:47 PM on May 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I must be doing something else wrong then--this started when I broke the A string trying to get higher than an E with the peg. (I think I got as high as F# at one point.)
posted by hoyland at 5:52 PM on May 4, 2011

Very close. There's a reasonable amount of play in the fine tuners (at least a half step on either side, probably, although it depends on the fine tuner) but putting a new string on is a good time to set the tuner so it barely engages, since the new string is really likely to go far more flat than is usual.

On preview, are you sure you were tuning to the correct octave? And that the cello string was full-size (it will say on the front of the package)?
posted by charmedimsure at 5:54 PM on May 4, 2011

Also, very infrquently a new string gets snagged on the bridge or the nut- you can lubricate both those slots with graphite from a pencil if you think that might have been an issue.
posted by charmedimsure at 5:58 PM on May 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm confident the string was the right size. I'm less confident about the octave, but I think I was right. (My sense of pitch is really pretty terrible, but it sounded and felt okay.)
posted by hoyland at 6:12 PM on May 4, 2011

Best answer: Try the graphite, then, and if by chance you were struggling to get the peg to stick and it's kind of a blur from there- as happens with my nervous new-to-tuning-and-string-putting-on kids- wrap the string on the peg close to the pegbox, and try a tiny amount of peg dope or chalk on the peg itself to add a bit of stick if it persists in frustrating you). Other than a weird snag or octave trouble, though, I'm out of ideas. :)

/bossy middle school string teacher who explains the obvious, you probably know all this already.
posted by charmedimsure at 6:22 PM on May 4, 2011

I actually once broke the D string on a viola, trying to tune it to an A. It was an absent minded mistake, since I actually play the violin, and only very occasionally play around with the viola. I know cello strings are thicker, but if you were potentially more than a fith higher, I could see it snaping.
posted by k8oglyph at 10:13 AM on May 5, 2011

Perhaps you could get your instructor (if you have one) or a fellow player (if you're a member of a group of some sort) to demonstrate/assist, if this is your first time? I wasn't confident on my own the first couple of times and got my instructor to hold my hand.
posted by snap, crackle and pop at 8:52 PM on May 5, 2011