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Topic: ZUMMERS ? |
FRANK MARIANO
From:
PENSACOLA FL
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Posted 22 Feb 2008 5:24 am |
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I have been out of the circuit a few years now and missing the honky tonk gigs. Well I set up my two Zums
and started picking again.I have a question on tuning.
In the owners manual the section on tuning steels with temperament compensators it reads(A temperament is merely another lower or raise of a string to temper it
in tune with other strings being changed.Thease are most commonly used on the 1st and 7th strings F# notes,
on the E9th tuning.Theye tuned with the nylon hex nuts
(marked black)in the normal procedure. Now on one of my Zums the black hex nuts are located on the lowering
location area.on the 2nd & 4th strings.They are attatched to a cross rod in the middle of the steel.I would assume the they are attached there for cabinet drop, but are they the compensators for the 1st & 7th strings with pedals A&B down? Second Question.In the raise area of nylon nuts I have 2 blue nylon hex nuts on strings 5&6 can any one shed some light on me what they are for? |
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Rob Segal
From:
New York NY
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Posted 22 Feb 2008 7:02 am Hex Mystery
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Frank,
Based upon your description of your guitar, they are clearly not 'tempermant compensators', though you may have those as well.
The mystery hex nuts on strings 2 & 4 in the lowering section (probably in the bottom holes in the changer when the steel is upright), and whose rods attach to the cross-strap in the middle of the guitar bottom, are 'return compensators'. Their purpose is to correct the tendency for strings to return sharp after a lower has been activated. Their function is to tweak the changer upon a return to neutral position after a lower is activated.
The method for adjusting them is to back them out so that they are not touching the changer at all when then changer is in neutral position. You can tell this by checking whether the rod is flops around loosely (no pressure on it).
Then tune up the string in question to correct open pitch, and exercise it a little bit, raising and lowering, and then after a raise, lower it, and check the pitch to which it returns with a tuner.
If it returns to true pitch, then you don't need to go further, just leave the compensator tuning nuts as is, and the return compensating function will not be active.
If it returns to neutral just a little sharp, start incrementally tightening the hex nut and rechecking, until you start to notice that the change returns to true pitch. If this is overdone, the string will return flat.
As for the other hex mystery nuts you mention, the fact that they are colored blue doesn't mean that they aren't just the ordinary A and B pedal pull rods. If they are not those, then they may be attached to split tuning correcting pulls.
The Zum has neck-end stop screws to perform the split tuning correction, as a rule, but depending upon your setup you may need split tuning correction by means of a pull rod as well.
If you can report what changes you have on 5 & 6 we can figure out what those nuts are doing.
Rob |
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FRANK MARIANO
From:
PENSACOLA FL
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Posted 22 Feb 2008 7:42 am
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| Rob, Thanks so much for responding.When I get home tonight I will go over all my changes and send them to you.I do know that on my 5th string I raise it with Pedal A&C a whole and lower the 5th string a half on my vertical. As for 6th string I raise that with B pedal a half and have a far outside knee that lowers the 5th& 6th a whole. Any thoughts? |
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Rob Segal
From:
New York NY
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Posted 22 Feb 2008 9:22 am lowering 5 & 6 a whole, and 5 a half.....
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When you're tuning a split, (eg A plus B-to-Bb), then the tuning of the lower change, when used alone without the corresponding raise, must be corrected with a rod (or other method) raising up the lowered string just a little at the end of the stroke.
On most or all Zum's (don't know about very early ones) that correction is made with stop screws located in the end of the neck to the right of the changer. They stop the action of the lowering finger. If you have a whole tone lower in addition to the half tone lower, then the using this screw for the half tone lower stop would prevent the whole tone lower, so in that case Bruce provides the more typical extra raise rod on the lowering lever to correct the tuning.
So the black nut is that corrector; it's probably attached to the B-to-Bb lever as a correcting raise.
Bruce's instructions tell how to tune a split; first tune the combination (A and B-to-Bb), then tune the lower alone with the black nut.
On 6 the black nut is probably the same thing, for the B pedal and the G# to F# lower, although more typically I would expect to see the end-of-neck stop screw for tuning the 6th string split.
Rob |
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