Thread: Follow-up to one-holed zills - how to elasticize?

After reading Yasmin's message, and before heading out to DC tomorrow for Aszmara's zills workshop, I decided to be a good student and put new elastic into my zills, which happens to be a one-holed set. How does everybody make sure their elastics are properly attached and in place? I am sewing small beads at the inside of the zills, which allows me to adjust the tightness a bit. Does anybody have a smarter, acoustically more preferrable solution?

Before I sound compulsive-obsessive about irrelevant details when I should practice instead - this takes me forever, I hate doing it with a passion, so I may as well do it right.

I have an old pair with round elastics knotted inside the zill to stay in place. Not very fancy, but it worked.

Well this sure isn't hi-tech, but I never try to do this job alone. I put the elastics in (starting by cutting the ends on a diagonals so they have narrow points that I can thread into the holes and pull through). Then I put them on and have someone (usually my daughter, who's also a dancer), tighten and tie them for me. We get it where it's about right, she ties a single knot, then I have her either tighten or loosen until it feels exactly just right, then she ties the second knot, Then if it still feels just right, she tightens the hell out of that second knot and trims the ends . . . or if it's not just right, we untie it and we start over. If there's any good way to do this task without two pairs of hands, I'd like to know what it is.
Rosette

I pull the elastics through the hole with needlenose pliers, and then sew them together at abouts where it fits - try on, adjust. Then, I sew my beads where I think they should be - try on, adjust. Trim off excess elastic. And, then, I just hope for the best. No knots here - I thought that knots are a huge no-no?

A small button works well.

Why are knots a no-no?
R

Sorry, I only recall that "Though shallst not knot." Maybe because of having a big blob of stuff in the zill?

I sewed a shirt button onto the elastic, to go inside the sagat, threaded the ends of the elastic through the hole and sewed the ends together to make the finger/thumb loop.

It doesn't make sense to me to use the knot as the anchor for the elastic. Firstly the knot can tighten and may slip through the hole when it's smaller. Secondly, the elastic is soft material and would deaden the sound of the cymbals. With the button anchor, the cymbals ring true.

The drawback was that the thread used to sew on the button will be getting a lot of wear, rubbing against the metal of the cymbals, and may eventually give out. I guess you could use heavy duty upholstery thread or something similar, but then it might be quite difficult to work with on a small scale item like a shirt button.

Close the elastic on the outside, put a small button on the inside. I feel like a complete doufus that this did not occur to me. I like to think of myself as extremely practical, but here, my common sense failed me. Thanks!

What Suleyman el Coyote did when he sold me a set of his one-hole cymbals:

Pull both ends of the elastic through the hole so they are inside the bell. Take a small gold safety pin and pin them together. Then pull the elastic to the outside of the cymbal so that the safety pin lies against the hole.

My feedback on the above: eventually, the safety pin wears out, and then it catches on your costume when you dance. It's kind of frustrating. But I share it because it's how the artisan, who is also a musician who cares about the sound, sees fit to do it.

A different approach I have used in the past that is the one I usually prefer: Get a tiny button, the size intended for baby clothes. Sew it to the center of the elastic. Now pull the ends of the elastic through the hole so that they are on the OUTSIDE of the cymbal. Adjust them to size and sew them together. The button will prevent the elastic from pulling through the hole.

Another vote for the small button method