Black Swamp Professional Castanet Mounting Frame

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This is a high quality castanet machine, typical of all Black Swamp products: professional quality and HIGH priced, BUT the "custom fit gaskets to create a unique, "non-slip" grip" do this ONLY with Black Swamp sized handles on THEIR castanets.. The "universal mounting hole" IS NOT "UNIVERSAL", AND WILL NOT FIT FRANK EPSTEIN CASTANETS as the hole is too large and the castanets will NOT fit and twist when played. I went to the local full service hardware store and found rubber grommets that that I was able to substitute by putting two different sizes together, one inside of the other and then with a unibit drill bit custom drilling out the slightly too small interior hole to fit the Epstein's without pulling the inside grommet out of the larger grommet attached to the metal frame when removing the castanets. I then used Loctite super glue on the interior edges of the two grommets to further prevent the interior one from pushing/pulling out when the castanets are inserted and removed. The castanets now do not spin under sustained FFF articulate playing. And it only took trips to four hardware stores, a fruitless hour online with grommet companies trying to find the right Outside Diameter, Inside Diameter, and outer slot Thickness to replace the "unique" Black Swamp grommet. It IS TRULY UNIQUE, having been custom ordered apparently to their exact specs. Eric, a top guy at Black Swamp explained to me when I called to see if they offered an alternative size grommet, that initially, they had considered offering the alternate sized grommet that could allow the machine to be used out of the box with Frank Epstein Castanets, but DECIDED NOT TO! Fair enough, I guess,but I told him, as he is certainly aware, MANY serous percussionist have and have used the Esptein's for many years. I have had mine for 30 and they remain superior in sound and quality, having required only replacement of the elastic that fastens the castanets to the handle. So if you are handy with power tools, and determined to use this machine go for it, as the grommet concept IS superior to the "pesky" turnscrews that will eventually strip and in the process damage the castanet handles. Just be ready to put in several hours looking for grommets, measuring with calipers the handles on the castanets, and (this was the hard part) fitting the two grommets together, and then putting them inside the metal holes. TIP: the larger grommet MUST be placed first as you won't be able to put the two together first and then insert them into the metal machine, they won't compress enough to fit. Doing FOUR of these holes was time consuming as the inner slot of the ONLY "outer" grommets I found were 1/16 inch narrower than the "BS" grommets which are 1/8" , and were not as good a fit as the original ones, but DO stay in. . LOTS OF WORK! I think it would be a service to the Percussion Community if Black Swamp would simply also offer the right size grommet to fit this well established, high quality competitor's castanet, and charge out the wazoo for it, rather than holding you up to also purchase their castanets! Sorry Eric, just my opinion... I am using my new version of the Black Swamp Castanet Machine with perfect results. It is stable and larger than others on the market, and works well despite it's ridiculously high price!

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