There is a support structure within HG's, pieces rest on pieces which rest on pieces which are supported by glue or mechanical supports or bearnings.
Most instruments settle with age, but most stabilize, and good design takes this into account. When a sudden change occurs in a complex machine, especially one that is mechanical in nature, I start the search by looking carefully at the overall structure of the machine - is everything still straight, are all the heights and widths and lengths still what they should be, are there any suspicious bows or sags that weren't there before? HG's respond significantly to a change in a dimension equal to the thickness of a piece of notebook paper. It doesn't take much of a sudden change in structure to move things more than that. I would suggest that if the environment you keep this instrument in is relatively stable, and the instrument has a good history of playing properly, that you have some sort of catastrophic failure in some part of the structure, and even though the overall appearance might not show it, and it might not be catastrophic for the instrument as a whole (it might not cause the whole thing to fall apart or be bursting at the seams) you should probably investigate to see if this is a one-time shift, a progressive failure, or something more serious. Just my $.02 worth Chris Nogy *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 7/27/2006 at 9:59 AM Matthew Szostak wrote: >At 08:47 PM 7/26/2006 +0100, you wrote: > >>Ah, but this is why the gurdy is our chosen instrument; it is a living >>breathing thing with a temprement all it's own. Somedays it is best to >>leave it to it's own devises; I have had gigs where one of my gurdies has >>failed completely and the other has only just been playable, yet the >>following day all has been well. There are often days at Saint Chartier >>when you will never hear a gurdy played due to heat, humidity or too much >>dust in the air. When things are like this I have found that it's best to >>go with the flow and accept that the instrument knows best. Of course if >>you want consistancy may I suggest an electronic keyboard. >>Incidently, the effect you have heard on recordings may not be anything >to >>do with the instrument. Many sound engineers have a tendancy to full back >>the faders as soon as the trompet kicks-in. Patrick Bouffard has >>incredible dynamics, I have recorded him in sessions and have often >>reduced the volume too far when the trompet comes in. >>Philip > > >Philip: I do not need an electronic keyboard. Perhaps my original posting >wasn't too clear... > >I'm not talking about a particular day of extreme "heat, humidity or too >much dust in the air" - no combination of these describes the current >climate in my living room. This is a hurdy-gurdy which has for years >played fine under the current conditions, and now does not. I'm sure that >many players on this list would agree that when things are not "like this" >that it is not "best to go with the flow", but to sort out and solve the >problem. > >In this case, the problem is the dropping of the trompette pitch, not the >volume level. This isn't a recording engineer problem, but an instrument >problem which a number of players have acknowledged. I was hoping that >there was someone here who had experienced it and somehow discovered the >cause, or at least "a" cause, and was able to take successful corrective >action, and that they would be able to describe the corrective action >taken. > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >Matthew Szostak - Hurdy-Gurdies >7 Grove Street >Camden, Maine 04843 >phone: 207-236-9576 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >website: http://www.midcoast.com/~beechhil/vielle >--------------------------------------------------------------------
