Hi gang,

I hope Nancy and Chuck Walker both respond to the question about tuning
music box combs. And you are certainly right about the "don't attempt
this at home" unless you really want to experiment with a music box you
don't want to save.

The first point I'd like to make is that the music boxes were tuned by
ear abviously. But a "tuning comb" was used as a master, probably for
many different boxes.  I acquired two "tuning combs" in Switzerland
this summer.  (Try explaining a comb that weighs over 5 pounds, with no
mechanism, to the customs people!) These combs have a sliding brass bar
over them, marked with a chromatic scale in do re mi.  This bar can be
slid over the comb to place any note over any tooth.  Obviously, no
thought was given to A=440, although A is marked (and is not 440, but
my testing gear is in Florida. I'll be home by the end of the month.
Expect to hear more then about these combs.

What is obvious about both of these combs is the stretch over the
length of the comb. This is so pronounced that I can hear a music box
that has been tuned using a Strobe or other electronic tuner from
across a large room at a large antique show. (And often identify the
restorer, unfortunately.) I plan to do some research on these
particular combs, and also to study some of the research on music box
tuning that has been done, notably by the late George Worswick.

I would like to stress one thing about music box combs.  They do not go
out of tune without some external action: corrosion of the leads is the
most common problem, but missing dampers and/or damper pins can affect
treble note tuning. The tuning of music box combs only becomes
necessary when replacing a tooth (or teeth) or leads on a damaged comb.
Other than that, it will stay the way it was originally tuned virtually
forever.  The old adage "If it's not broke, don't fix it!" applies to
music box combs. For this reason, sanding a comb to make it shiny is
usually not a good idea. Removing metal changes the tuning, and not
evenly across the scale. A rusted comb presents some very special (and
painstaking) techniques. It is fairly easy to damage a comb with a file
in nimble, but uneducated fingers. And part of what makes the
wonderful, distinctive sound of particular music box makers may well be
their particular tuning.  Comb tuning changed (as did piano tuning)
over the years, and the early boxes have a different stretch than later
boxes.

If anyone wants a blow by blow description of the process involved in
tuning combs, let Nancy, Chuck or I know, or one of us will reply to
the group.  It is a lengthy process!

As I have been told many times "Don't ask me time it is, I'll tell you
how to build a clock!"

Beatrice