Broken Belt and Screw before gig!
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Things break as just the wrong time, right? This particular wrong time is before Vitamin-D's album release show at Union Hall.
posted by dennis at
2:59 PM
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Things break as just the wrong time, right? This particular wrong time is before Vitamin-D's album release show at Union Hall.
this small vibraphone was made by galanti somewhere in the 50s or 60s. it is built in a suitcase and ranges two octaves (f to f). it was purchased by dennis in september of 2005 and accompanies him on some of his performances.
5 Comments:
What's that screw?!
By
Adam D, at 3:40 PM
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By
Anonymous, at 11:33 AM
that screw was one of four for the handle. i had to take it off while replacing the belt. now i have one that doesn't match.
By
dennis, at 3:58 PM
Hi Dennis,
Ah, broken belts. That's a pain, even more so in the
2 1/2 octave version because of the variable tremolo speed. And of course, belts tend to break just before a bigger show, after the soundcheck...
I have been searching for replacements on the Internet, but they are nearly impossible to find. I used common rubber bands for a while, but they don't last that long - they do work, but not very well.
However, one of my fellow musicians in a makeshift orchestra that I played in for a school musical some time ago came up with THE solution. She - a young saxophone player - ties her hair up with those special rubber bands with cloth on the outside (is that a scrunchy in English? We just call them " hair rubber bands" in Dutch). She gave me one; it had the right diameter and tension / width. I just removed the metal clip that sits around the seal of the two ends and tried it out.
It's been in there ever since and it works just fine. What is more, I ONLY have these replacements in my Vibraphonette nowadays, as all the original belts and the few replacements that I had managed to find have broken.
So find yourself some of hose! They're dead cheap - I get them free from some girls I know - and they work very well.
Cheers,
Sergej
By
Unknown, at 6:07 PM
Hello Sergej,
That's a pretty creative (and inexpensive!) solution for belt replacement. I'll have to give a try. So far the VCR belts are still holding up for me, but I know they won't last forever. Also, VCR repair shops are getting few and far between.
Did you try www.malletshop.com? I'm not sure if they would ship overseas, but they seemed helpful when I contacted them a while back. There's also www.centurymallet.com.
Cheers,
Dennis
By
dennis, at 5:30 PM
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