Jan wrote:

> It's not a bad instrument at all but lacks a snare which I will
> add by myself. I dont want to make holes in the shell for a peg
> so I'm wondering if someone on the list has any suggestion for
> attaching the gut string and being able to tighten/loosen it in
> some other convenient way. There are obvious solutions to this
> problem, but I'm looking for something "elegant".

I suppose the answer to this will depend upon how much you are
willing to sacrifice tradition for your desire not to drill holes.
I can envision a snare that passes under the frame at both ends
and is attached at one end to a button that cannot pass under the
frame but is attached to nothing but the snare. At the other end,
the snare might be attached to a device like a geared tuning machine
as found on a guitar, which is also not attached to anything but the
snare and is held in place and upright only by the tension in the
snare. With a little work, one might even be able to make a little
box with a violin-type tuning peg that is likewise held in place by
the snare.

I doubt you would find historical examples of instruments built this
way, but they might solve your problem.

Now I must wonder whether this is what you referred to as "obvious" or
whether it might be considered "elegant" or something in between. :-)

> I'm curious If those of you that are indeed using snare strings
> on your tabors use one string or many, as I have seen somewhere.
> And If you use snarees on boith sides or only on one.

I use a tabor by Ben Harms (http://www.harmsperc.com/). His
instruments have a double strand of gut on only the upper (struck)
face. The question of whether the other face should also have a
snare is interesting. All of the historical paintings (quite
understandably) only show the struck face of the tabor, and it
generally has a snare. If someone unearths a painting of a tabor
player that shows the back side of the tabor, then we will know if
they had snares there, but I would think it would be a rather
silly painting.

David Barnert
Albany NY


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