Hi all,
I have been experiencing a strange problem on my gurdy intermittently
for some time. Today I made a video capture of it and am hoping
someone out there might have a suggestion for the cause. Here is the
description I posted on youtube with a video demonstrating the
problems ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiwbVr054MY ):
I have run into an intermittent problem with my C/G gurdy in which
the low A (first diatonic key) on one of the melody strings (the top
one in this image, which is the only string I am playing on in this
video) has a "shudder" when the key is released. The entire string
visibly shakes and has an unpleasant sound that sounds something
like a stutter that tapers off over a period of about a second. (It
also does it to a lesser degree on the A♭/G♯ key, but is not
terribly noticeable). It happens only on one of the strings, not the
other two, and is not caused by contact with a tangent and there is
nothing obviously wrong with the string geometry. It does not happen
with other notes, as is clear in the recording. When observing the
string directly, it appears that the string shudders in a radius of
about 1 mm greater than the normal vibrational envelope that is
observed while playing, and it seems to shake back and forth in time
with the shuddering sound (although I cannot confirm that it in fact
does).
String is a twisted gut string from Gamut strings that is about a
year old and that, aside from this problem, still plays admirably.
Sound quality of the video is not great, but I did this using my
laptop's built-in microphone and video camera, so the weakness of
the audio on the video is not indicative of the actual sound of the
instrument and is not diagnostic for the problem. (The instrument is
one made by Balázs Nagy, whose instruments are known for having a
very robust sound.)
I welcome any suggestions for the source of this problem and how to
fix it. I have tried to figure this one out for a while, but I
cannot find any obvious (or unobvious, for that matter) reason for
the shudder.
Does anyone have any idea of what might be going on or how to fix it?
-Arle
