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That Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease sounds terrible. Did you go to a physician? Any idea how you contracted it?
Regarding a luthier, I have visited James Greenberg, owner of Zavaleta's (look up his website) in Tucson (actually Oro Valley, where Marta and I just visited), and in fact several years ago bought a Manueal Adalid blanca from him. I know he has a luthier in Tucson that does work for him. I forget the luthier's name, but I'm sure he is good because James has him work on the high-end guitars he imports from Spain.
I'm sure if you E-mail James via his website, he probably could advise you of the luthier he uses. It might be worth a trip to Tucson if you could obtain the services of a very good luthier.
Cheers,
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Bill, yes, it has been a rough week. Now the skin of my hands is peeling off in large chunks. It's a good thing I don't have any gigs for a few days. I wonder if the new skin will have to rebuild calluses. I don't have a diagnosis, but the symptoms match online descriptions and a child in our circle was diagnosed with it. It appears my daughter got it at one of her activities and passed it on to me. The symptoms were mild for my daughter and we'd never have known she had gotten it except in retrospect. Where I had dozens of sores, she had maybe four or five total. According to the CDC, it is a common disease usually affecting the 5 and under crowd. It is not some kind of exotic livestock-human crossover plague!
Thanks for the idea of visiting Mr. Greenburg. I hope I will not have to drive two hours just to get my tuning machines swapped out. It does appear to be the case that no nylon-string guitar luthiers reside in the Phoenix area.
So now the skin has peeled off, leaving that kind of red, tender layer. I am not sure I am going to be ready to play by this weekend--10 hours of gigging. Any ideas for something I could put on the fingertips to strengthen them?
Thanks for the idea of visiting Mr. Greenburg. I hope I will not have to drive two hours just to get my tuning machines swapped out. It does appear to be the case that no nylon-string guitar luthiers reside in the Phoenix area.
Miguel, There must be a music store with a repairman in the Phoenix area. It doesn't take a luthier to change tuners. You can do it yourself with nothing more than a small phillips screwdriver and something with a point (a cheap compass comes to mind).
However, after lubricating them with mineral oil, there has been a marked improvement! It took me a while to get some oil and it didn't seem to matter at first. But now, the low E string tuners works fine. It does have a bit of a gritty action to it, and I would wager the essential problem remains. But for the moment, it is acceptable.
Last we left our hero, he had used some mineral oil to loosen up his tuners as suggested by an old wives' tale (just joking: tip from Ricardo); it did help somewhat. Although I meant to replace the tuners, I have a lot of gigs and just never made the time. Life went on... this morning, I was changing the strings when one of the gears popped off the 2nd string. Recall, the tightness had been on the 6th string. There is a screw that holds on the gear, and it was missing. There is also a washer under the screw, and I never heard or noticed that fall, either. I was down on the ground for ten minutes and could not find it at all. I did not hear anything. I thank maybe it must have fallen off at some earlier time and I never noticed it. I have been playing gigs for the last 4 days straight and never noticed anything.
I remembered that I had some unused tuners down in the garage from 2003 when I thought I was going to become a luthier despite never having made anything out of wood, not even a birdhouse. Turns out they are the cheap Gotoh tuners. I meant to cannibalize them, but they have different screw sizes. I ended up just replacing one side. It fits well, although there is a bit of tightness. Three of the screws line up almost perfectly, the other does not. I guess that means I should order some good Gotohs and it will work fine. These are the cheapest tuners, and lighter and have a cheaper feel than what Cordoba was using stock. It seems to work, hopefully it won't fail in the next few weeks.
I just ordered the mid-level of the "economy" tuners, it was $61 plus shipping. The step up tuners were $200 and that just seems a lot. The tuners the guitar came with lasted ten years, so hopefully it will work out. If I were feeling just a bit more flush, maybe I would have gone for higher-end ones. I just read a thread at Delcamp where these guys were posting pictures of "tuner-porn", Grafs and Rodgers and other $300-$1800 tuners.
Is there a reason we don't use the steel-string tuners for our flamenco/classicals? My tenor ukulele has that style and I like them.
Is there a reason we don't use the steel-string tuners for our flamenco/classicals? My tenor ukulele has that style and I like them.
Are you talking about individual sealed gear tuners? I imagine weight would be an issue which is why I imagine people don't use them, and aesthetics too; tradition and flamenco seem to be inescapable.
Last we left our hero, he had used some mineral oil to loosen up his tuners as suggested by an old wives' tale (just joking: tip from Ricardo); it did help somewhat. Although I meant to replace the tuners, I have a lot of gigs and just never made the time. Life went on... this morning, I was changing the strings when one of the gears popped off the 2nd string. Recall, the tightness had been on the 6th string. There is a screw that holds on the gear, and it was missing. There is also a washer under the screw, and I never heard or noticed that fall, either. I was down on the ground for ten minutes and could not find it at all. I did not hear anything. I thank maybe it must have fallen off at some earlier time and I never noticed it. I have been playing gigs for the last 4 days straight and never noticed anything.
I remembered that I had some unused tuners down in the garage from 2003 when I thought I was going to become a luthier despite never having made anything out of wood, not even a birdhouse. Turns out they are the cheap Gotoh tuners. I meant to cannibalize them, but they have different screw sizes. I ended up just replacing one side. It fits well, although there is a bit of tightness. Three of the screws line up almost perfectly, the other does not. I guess that means I should order some good Gotohs and it will work fine. These are the cheapest tuners, and lighter and have a cheaper feel than what Cordoba was using stock. It seems to work, hopefully it won't fail in the next few weeks.
Glad my advice gave you a temporary fix. Unfortunately you missed the part where I talked also about the loose screw situation....while perhaps the 6th string might have been in order, my implications were to oil ALL the gears and tighten ALL the screws, sorry I didn't make that clear earlier. For anybody else that might come across this thread with similar problems, it doesn't hurt to keep maintainence on your tuning machines on occasion.
Received the Gotohs today. Emboldened by the success of my emergency swap-out, I decided to change them myself. The were heavier and nicer than the cheap $15 ones. However, to my surprise, they were a bit lighter and maybe not as nice as the stock ones. I guess the FCWE really did get better fittings than a run-of-the-mill Cordoba. I was able to get them in, but managed to botch the two screws I had to drill. Neither of them are sitting flush, although I guess they are doing the job.
One thing is that the rollers are a bit tight in their holes in the first and sixth strings. They work, but clearly take more muscle to move than the others. Is this something to be concerned about?
In the classic "the foro told you so!!!" JINX....a month ago I was just finished with final rehersal touch ups and had AN HOUR to go before the big theatre show we do each year, totally sold out, I was back stage changing my strings when the D string tuner froze. I haden't made it up to pitch. I back wound it and tried again. The gear was worn totally and at the same position in either direction it froze and finally stripped so the gear teeth would just hop over the worm, not tuning up any further. THANKS FORO!!!
Considering the stress involved with opening night of show...and I am the ONLY Guitarist with NO way to fix it and only an hour to go, I told none of the dancers or show promoters, (only the singers new and were stressing), I called my wife, luckily not working that night....she ran home grabbed another guitar and drove to the theatre 45 minutes away!
So 10 minutes to show time, and the other guitar arrived with really old dead strings. I changed em in 5 minutes and we went out. I was worried about the fact we had already done sound checks with other guitar but it was basically fine. Now these tuners were my most used tuners (bass side) than any other guitar I own. Gotohs...pretty expensive ones. THey out lasted 2.5 tap plates at least...but...I have to go on record that if tuners DO become stiff, oil em to keep em going at home but if it is a gig guitar, change the tuners as others suggested. Nothing lasts forever for sure, learned my lesson, carry on.
PS....I want to show pic of my new tuner, but foro no longer accepts photos from my photo library using Ipod/Iphone....anybody work out this problem?
Received the Gotohs today. Emboldened by the success of my emergency swap-out, I decided to change them myself. The were heavier and nicer than the cheap $15 ones. However, to my surprise, they were a bit lighter and maybe not as nice as the stock ones. I guess the FCWE really did get better fittings than a run-of-the-mill Cordoba. I was able to get them in, but managed to botch the two screws I had to drill. Neither of them are sitting flush, although I guess they are doing the job.
One thing is that the rollers are a bit tight in their holes in the first and sixth strings. They work, but clearly take more muscle to move than the others. Is this something to be concerned about?
Tuners rollers should easily slide into the holes. If the fit is tight it creates binding and increased wear. It sounds like the holes were not drilled perfectly or the alignment was not correct when tuners were installed. I never drill pilot holes for the screws all that's necessary is something with a point like an awl and some lubricant on the screw (spit works well). First remove the strings and see if the tuners still bind, if they do I suggest you remove all the screws and shift the tuners around to see if you can find a spot where they don't bind. Then put the screws back in (you may have to plug one of two of the pilot holes). If that doesn't work I suggest a trip to the local luthier.