I had a look at a very interesting little spinet today, from way back in 1952, built by E.C. Hague here in Montreal. Definitely not a historical design, with bizarre “jacks” - the plectrum/tongue is separate from the actual jack, and the actual plectrum is a bit of leather glued on top…
But for all that, it’s really quite a pleasant instrument - very quiet, of course, with that long sustain and very plain tone that one might expect from back then, but it’s much nicer than anything else I’ve looked at from the era, and is in unbelievable condition for its age!
The one problem (besides the difficulty in doing anything with the leather plectra…) is that it has tiny little tuning pins that my hammer won’t fit on - they’re the usual square zither-style pins, but quite a bit smaller than usual. I gather the usual ones are 5mm diameter, though searches for smaller sizes are difficult, since “4mm” just turns up listings for the size of the square top of the pin! Does anyone know where one might get a tuning hammer for these?
Try Morley in London for those smaller zither pin hammers:
Ms Julia Morley
Robert Morley & Co Ltd
34 Engate Street
London SE13 7HA
UNITED KINGDOM
Phone work +44 20 8318 5838 Fax +44 20 8297 0720
<sales@morleypianos.co.uk>
Well, of course Marc Vogel has this size, -I regularly obtain a few, because there is a rare but constant demand here… Maybe in the US the autoharp-solution is the most reasonable, good luck! Dietrich (from Germany)
2021-10-27T22:00:00Z
Some time ago, I changed the size of a tuning hammer opening to solve a similar problem for a friend. This will of course only work with the square holed version not with the more comfortable star.
Take some brass sheeting and cut slightly longer than the hole is deep. Bend 90 degrees and cut to fit into two sides of the hole. Glue with epoxy. Slit the corner and bend down the edges and epoxy these as well.
It seems to have worked well.
Regards,
Andrew