Dangler Tales
I am in love. The object of my affection is metallic and angular. And pointy. It’s only an 8 inch Black Swamp Artisan Triangle. When I first got it from Steve Weiss Music, I tapped on it in the Basement. It sounded sort of harsh to me with a lot of overtones. Now I’m not one who describes triangles the way some talk about fine wine. (It’s got a fruity finish with notes of plum and blackberry and it’s been shown the oak). I’ll show YOU the oak! Anyway, I packed the dangler back into the box and was fixing to send it back to Steve Weiss, all the while thinking that you shouldn’t buy instruments (especially metal ones) sound unheard.
Laziness took over at that point and I forgot about it. Then I was hired to do some playing so I decided to rip it out of the box, take it down to the hall and let the boys hear it. In the friendly confines of Powell Hall it was a thing of beauty. It filled up the space without that dinner bell quality that I discerned in the Basement. The soft notes were piquant with notes of, well, triangle. Better yet, if you had to whack it, it held up very well on the loud side of the spectrum. The SLSO has two really nice old Leedy triangles and this one fit nicely into the mix. Not at all oaky!
So anyway. I kept it.
