At 05:20 PM 1/3/2008 +0100, you wrote:
>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
Hi Douwe
I am a complete hurdy-gurdy beginner so my opinion is not worth a great
deal
but, I am an experianced amateur luthier, have built many different
instruments
and have just finished my first hurdy gurdy.
Although I built from my own plans, my experience is this;-
The build is relatively straightforward. If the plans are good and if you are
comfortable in the workshop you should have little trouble.
The devil is in the detail! To play properly there are a number of
conditions that have to be met but you don't know what those conditions
are until you start to set it up by which time it's too late! you have to
undo
certain bits to correct them and try again.
The hurdy gurdy is unlike the vast majority of instruments in that it is
totally reliant on correct set-up to be playable.
One wrong thing and it just won't work!
Building it yourself either from scratch or from a kit demands that not only
do you build it well but that it is _able_ to be set up properly and
that you _can_ set it up, you must be prepared for either
success or failure, you might spend a lot of money and still be dissapointed.
On the other hand the pleasure of building one yourself and learning
to play it is priceless! (and it impresses the hell out of your friends
and relatives!!)
In my very humble opinion if you have to ask if its a good idea to build
then it probably isn't. I doubt that you will save much money and the
finished instrument will be less than satisfactory in too many ways.
Regards, Tony
