Greetings Chris, Just for the sake of completeness sake, and since I do not think anyone else has mentioned it ...
In Marcello Bono's plans packet for the Bosch hurdy-gurdy (purchased some time ago from Michael Muskett), Marcello gives the builder three options for the body of the instrument. They are: contemporary lutherie construction (with curved back and belly), carving the body out of one block of wood, and gluing up smaller blocks of wood to give the mass of a carved body without needing to start with a serious block of seasoned wood. Marcello does not give any cautions in the text to indicate there are possible problems with any of the construction options for the builder or player. I rather like the third method of gluing up the body so I would not have short grain into which the strings will be anchored at the tail of the instrument. However, since you have already carved instruments, you already know whether short grain in the tail of an instrument is a problem or not. Is it? -Karl Christoffers --- Chris Nogy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have made several hollowed bodied instruments > > www.nogy.net, look at the rebec or the crwth or the > citole or the lyre pages. > > But this instrument, the citole from the Cantigas, > is one of the design starting points I am trying to > explore, as well as King David's Crwth, the gittern > from the British Museum, etc... These instruments > were popular and common body shapes, I assume that > it would not be out fo the question to build a gurdy > with a shape similar to other instruments that were > being built. > > I am just really curious to know if this method has > any specific design characteristics that would make > it unsuitable for a gurdy (a medieval gurdy, not a > modern one). > > I have wood in sufficient dimension and am > experienced in making a jointed body in his style as > well. I know that if it had to be a jointed carved > body, then it would have to be jointed in 3 sections > so that the axle would have the full support fo the > center. But for a smaller gurdy, which most of the > medieval illustrations I have seen seem to imply, > there are lots of species of hardwood that grow > large enough and can be seasoned well enough to do > this job. > > Chris > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/
