Link to Tim's ringing website

And for the third part of the Wine glasses story.....

Click here to jump to the First Part and the Second Part.

PART 3;

The second set of wine glasses remained much unused until March 2007 when it was felt that the time was right (following several successful handbell quarters) for the new set to be quartered.  The location is Southampton, the date is Sunday 4th March.  A quarter peal has been scored on Bens brightly coloured, reasonably priced, not quite Whitechapel handbells (more details here) and three students a in a suitably sensible mind frame.... A quarter peal is attempted, however after 7mins this is what happens.....click here

Over the next fortnight much restoration work is carried out to restore the glasses to a six.  On this ocassion a trip to sound weld (aka the superglue bottle) gave unsatisfactory results with the 4th and the glass in question was put to sleep.  Numerous glasses were purchased in an attempt to find replacements for the old 4th and the treble, which thought it would be amusing to leave the current foundry work top and have a intimate encounter with the floor, during some retuning work.  However with the aid of 3 new wine glasses a new six were assemble with the originals being 2, 3 & 6.  A new 5th was added to replace the former ancient glass which was horribly out of tune.  However, English Heritage insisted on preservation and therefore it can now be found on display in the drinks cabinet.  Slight alterations were made to the clappers with the aid of some string, the results being....

The restoration work was nicely rounded off by successfully completing a quarter of Doubles in 30mins on Wednesday 14th March 2007.  Click here for a sound clip of the current 6.

                                                                                    1-2 Ben Waller

                                                                                    3-4 Tim E Rose (c)

                                                                                    5-6 Joanne A Pocock

First on drinking vessels; 1-2 & 5-6
First Doubles on drinking vessels; 3-4
First quarter on this set.
Celebrating the refurbishment and recasting of several bells.
In memory of the former treble & 4th.

PART 2;

Since leaving Exeter and saying farewell to my partners in the project, withdrawal symptoms have set in.  During the last two weeks of the summer vacation the pain had reached such a level that I was forced to trawl local charity shops in search of 6 'tuned' glasses.  After 2 hours and a huge sum of £2.90, six glasses had been purchased.

Looking back at the Exeter glasses, I felt that a new clapper was needed.  With the aid of a few meters wire, a pair of pliers and an afternoon with nothing better to do, 6 clappers were manufactured to the new design, still being largely based on the hinge system designed by Shaun Brown.  The result being;

Finally, I was reunited with a fully functional set of wine glass hand-bells.  But, during the founding process one of the bells became cracked and had to take a trip to sound weld (AKA the superglue bottle).  Leaving a set of six weighing in at 200ml in the key of Eb.

These bells were first and last rung as a set on Saturday 15th Oct, due to the fifth suffering at the hands of Mr James T Shepard on a Very Serious Society outing.  This, together with the already cracked sixth, lead to the search for two new tenors - a task that stretched from Portland (in Dorset) to Southampton.  Following a serious amount of tuning and the great expense of £1.05, the refurbished set were once again ready for ringing.  The tenor now being 250ml in Db.

Click here to listen to 30 seconds of plain hunt on the new set.

Now all awaits is a second quarter peal on the new set.......

PART 1;

To Listen to a 120 of Plain Bob Minor being rung on the wine glasses click here (about 500kb). 

A shortened version of about 30 seconds is also available - click here (about 80kb).

Below is a photo of the band, complete with glasses just after finishing the quarter.

        1-2 Dominic D Meredith

    3-4 David G Maynard

5-6 Tim E Rose (c)

200th quarter as conductor.
Believed to be the first quarter rung on drinking vessels.

Pip Rossiter and Shaun Brown should be associated with this quarter

for their invaluable help in the process of founding the bells!
 

HISTORY OF THE 'BELLS'

During exam week in February 2005, three Exeter students with nothing better to do with their time decided to try to fit some sort of clapper into a selection of wine glasses.  The idea being to create a set of 'handbells' on which changes could be rung.  Within minutes the Kitchen at 91 Bonhay Road, Exeter was converted into the 'foundry'.

Over the next 3 hours the team of three (Tim, Pip and Shaun) experimented with different clapper assemblies including combinations of paper clips, clothes pegs, chess pieces, pencils, parts of coat hangers, electrical cable, blu-tack and solder until a suitable method of striking the glasses was found.  This is some of the early clapper assemblies;

The next problem was to select 6 suitably 'in tune' glasses (from the cupboard) to use as the 'bells'.  This is where Shaun's musical knowledge proved to be invaluable.  After choosing the best six, both the fourth and tenor needed tuning work (again this was Shaun's field of expertise).  Unfortunately, there was not much we could do about the exact harmonics of the 'bells' and therefore these are certainly not Simpson tuned nor are they most tonally pleasing ring I have ever listened too!  Finally after about 4 hours of work and a 'try out' on the new bells, we had our product;

I must add, only 3 wine glasses were broken during the founding. 

THE QUARTER

Time passed with the glasses sat in the cupboard out of harms way, waiting for an appropriate quarter peal opportunity.  This didn't come until 20th June, when the first quarter was rung on the 'bells' at the first attempt.  With some delicate ringing styles (especially on 3-4) 1260 changes was completed without a single crack.  Originally the plan was to record the entire piece, but when Tim tried to replay the quarter he realised that he had pressed the wrong button (Grrrrrhhhhh)!  Nether-the-less, the bells rang a further 120 changes so that a recording could be made (see top of page).  Still no cracks!  How much longer will the glasses last?.............

Link to Tim's ringing website