Re: [HG] Re: hurdy gurdy kits...or the DIY fanatics folly.Yes but not if the
cheap car has two pistons missing and the big end has gone and the tyres are
bald.
The expense involved could have been used to get a better car in the first
place.
Goodness knows just how much work and experience went into you HG before you
got it.
Do you know?
I think everyone has agreed that the kit in the hands of an experienced maker
CAN be made very playable.
However, a new cheap car should work just as well as an expensive one - just be
a little more "basic".
I think it's the problem getting the kit playing in the first place that's
causing concern - especially for someone who has no knowledge or experience of
HGs.
If you get one, build it and it DOESN'T play well, you will hardly start saving
for a better one, will you?
More likely you'll never want to look at a HG again.
If you haven't the skill to build one from a kit, that money is wasted and, as
others have said, it's more than just woodworking skills. It's an art and craft
in it's own right which would be beyond many of us even though we can make
slight "adjustments" to them from time to time.
Best we can do is offer the best advice we can based on what we have been told
or experienced ourselves. Doubtless there will be many kits out there that have
been made to work otherwise they wouldn't be selling them but whether they are
ALL musical instruments may be another thing.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: F.Sierra
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [HG] Re: hurdy gurdy kits...or the DIY fanatics folly.
In Defense of the Kits,
First, I will admit I have a Musikit. But it was already built when I got it,
thus I didn't spent the time and effort to construct it, nor was I interested
in doing so. My purpose with this Hurdy is to get me started, without having to
invest too much money initially. As my explorations evolved, yes eventually I
will get a more suitable Gurdy. So far I am perfectly happy with the sounds I
have coerced from the Musikit, and do plan to keep playing and experimenting
with this item for a while.
I have since and heard $6,000 which to my ears are very dissappointing.
Having something like the Musikit to get started makes the instrument much more
accessible to a wider audience.
Here is another car analogy. A Mercedes Benz is a finely crafted vehicle,
which many consider a pleasure to drive, very secure and a well recognized
brand. Yet, many parents find it difficult to offer their high school children
such a vehicle to go to school. As much as they want their best for their kids,
they have to make do with what they can reach for.
Like a first car, that you later exchange for a more robust one, the kits are
perfectly fine first Gurdy's to get you started.
Frankie
Chris Nogy wrote:
You hit on it exactly in your last statement. The gurdy comes in many
flavors, they have tonal differences, but the differences are not as many as
the similarities. And for those who have spent a lifetime learning to play a
gurdy, they have come to know the sounds and tonal components that make a gurdy
a gurdy. Those sounds and tonal components come from years of tradition, from
the way the instrument was steered throughout the ages. People here give their
recomendations according to the playability, the agility, the usability of the
instruments in a performance venue. They compare them to the work of the
Hackmans, to Nagy, to the other really fine builders instruments, and they are
trying to get people not to settle for something limited by design, but to
assure folks get a world of gurdy opportunity. They want you to have the best
tool for the job. And in that respect, they are usually quite right about kits
and plans.
You can buy a cheap violin from China, and if you are lucky and get a
professional to set it up, you can play the violin parts of a piece
recognizably, and even sound something like a violin. But even if you are the
finest virtuoso in the world, the music you produce is both from your skill and
from the instrument, and a surprising amount of what comes out comes from the
instrument without you telling it to.
