How To Care For Your Music Box
By Philippe Rouillé
"How shall I manage with my new music box?"
Father Christmas has brought you a music box, and you never had one before. As if it was a new-born baby, you do not know exactly how to handle it ...
So, for those people who have only one or two music boxes, and who do not want to read a lot about music boxes, but wish to keep them in good condition, may I remind here what you SHOULD DO or NEVER DO to a music box:
-- NEVER DISMANTLE ANY PART if you do not know exactly how a music box works. And especially if the spring is not TOTALLY unwound, or you could ruin your box.
-- NEVER TAKE THE RUST OUT OF A COMB, either with sandpaper or a file or a metallic brush. Otherwise, if you take the rust away, your music box will come out of tune and play very modern or ethnical music! If you really want to take the dust away, just wipe it very gently with a very smooth, non-metallic brush (and even so some dampers might suffer).
-- ALWAYS KEEP IT HORIZONTAL: carry or store a music box horizontally; not vertically, not upside down.
-- NEVER MOVE A MUSIC BOX WHILE IT IS PLAYING: the cylinder might shift aside, and break dampers or pins. For the same reason, always let the music box play until the end of the tune, and never let it stop still before; if necessary, wind it a little so that it goes to the end of the tune.
A good practice is to leave the Change/Repeat lever on 'Repeat' when the box is not playing. Should a shock or an accident happen, only one tune would be ruined ...
If you want to know more, or listen to a music box which refuses to play, ask Nancy Fratti or other good specialists or knowledgable collectors. They always prefer to spend some time giving you advice than seeing a music box ruined.
And if you want to know how man can become dangerously addicted with music boxes, read the wonderful book by Larry Karp (a member of this digest), "The Enchanted Ear".
Philippe Rouille (Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/
[ Sound's great! Where is your book sold, Larry? -- Robbie |
(Message sent Tue 7 Jan 1997, 15:04:24 GMT, from time zone GMT+0100.) |
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