Tensioner
A tensioner is a small metal fine serrated roller which is used for to grant more easily the cords of the instruments of the family of the Violon. Whereas the ankle is located in the head of the instrument, at the end of the handle, the tensioner is placed on the level of the rope-maker, with the bottom of the instrument.
The presence of a tensioner at the end of a cord is optional. If there is no tensioner, the end of the cord is blocked in a hole of the rope-maker envisaged for this purpose; in this case, one uses a “cord swell”, i.e. it comprises a small metal ball which prevents the end of the cord from escaping from the hole. If there is a tensioner, one uses indifferently a “cord swell” or a “cord buckles”; this second type does not comprise that a metal loop which clings at the vertical pointed end of the tensioner.
To increase the height of the note produced by the open string, the tensioner is screwed. The screw supports then on the horizontal part of a small elbow which holds the end of the cord in its vertical part. The horizontal part going down, the vertical arm is drawn towards the rope-maker: the tension of the cord increases, and thus the height of the cord too.
The tensioner is particularly useful for the steel cords, more sensitive to the tension than the cords mixing several materials. This is why on a violin one finds of it almost systematically for the cord of semi . However, the nature of the cord is not the only reason pushing to put a tensioner to him: thanks to a tensioner, the agreement is more precise, faster and does not present the same risk as during the handling of the ankles, which can abruptly slip of their site. Thus, the initial instrumentalists generally have a tensioner for all the cords.
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