Hi Douwe,
Kits are fine as long as your have a craftsmanship kind of personality.
If you have a musicianship type of personality then you want to look for
an already built Hurdy. In other words, are you into measuring, cutting
and sanding, and will derive pleasure from this activities, or are you
more of the type of let's get the party started and make some noise
quickly? The former will enjoy the challenges of a kit, and the former
will be dissappointed by the details of Hurdy cronstruction. Talking
about kits, google "$20 Hurdy Gurdy" for a way to really find out if you
will enjoy the craftmanship aspect, without investing too much money
(although there is going to be a good amount of time investment).
I have recently started with an already built Musikit Hurdy, despite all
the advice to the contrary. I am perfectly happy with it. I am the kind
of person that likes to experiment with different kinds of sounds. For
example, I have found that weedwhacker cord works very good on my Hurdy,
and produces an amazingly good tone.
The important think to remember is that you want to find the kind of
sound you like. You can trade your budget limitations with an investment
of time in building, experimenting, and rehashing, and eventually you
will get to a point that you can build a very satisfying $20 Hurdy Gurdy
on your own.
Frankie
Douwe Boschma wrote:
Hello everybody,
I am new on the list as well and I have a newbie question that I am unable
to find an answer about.
But lets start properly with a small introduction. I am Douwe, a 38 yo male
living in the Norwegian moutains on a small farm with my wife and two girls
(0 and 6). Originally I am Dutch and I work (amongst some of other trades)
as a graphic designer.
Since my youth I have had a medieval gen buzzing in my system. It expresses
itself in many ways but it especially starts to resonate franticly if I hear
the sound of the hurdygurdy. I get a lyrical feeling that I don't have with
any other instrument even though I play some different instruments.
Because of this lingering love I have been thinking for years about buying a
hurdygurdy, but as with a lot of people my income goes straight into the
household so I am on budget too low to afford one that would be to my taste.
Because of this I decided to build one. I already have a plan for a
hungarian HG from the music museum in Stockholm ;-) I love the "no-frills"
form, it is a large one (and I am a very tall guy) and I expect a warm and
rich sound, lest the right kind of tone wood will be used. But before I
start with that undertaking I want to get a good feel for the instrument (on
the inside and outside) so I considered buying a kit to get me going.
Now I found two kits on internet.
The musikit.com one is well advertised but also one that I'm sure I don't
want because of it would need a lot of work to get a reasonable sound and
versatility out of it.
I am talking about this one:
http://www.musikit.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=hurd
y
And I have found an other one that I can't find any additional information
about and that is this one:
http://www.masterkit.com/rwc/products/hurdy.htm
I seems to have all the specs I am looking for except from a lacking key as
I understood about this 18th century french model. But does anyone have
experience with this HG-kit, or has anyone heard about it? Can I expect it
to be good enough for a starter? Or is it a toy to hang on the wall? ;-).
It is a budget thing really, as I can't spend more what that one would cost
me. It is even above my budget. In usd bout 1000. In euros about 740.
So that is the only option I found out about that might be a valid one, but
it is something that I wish to validate with knowledgeable people! Maybe
there are other options too that I don't know about! I'm all eyes and ears.
Sorry for this very long mail, but I though that it would be right to show a
bit about myself trough in it as I am new here. Any next on will be more to
the point.
With best regards,
Douwe
