Dear Chris Nogy: Wow, thank you so much for this thoughtful and informative reply.
Just as an aside -- I like you guys much better when you say what you think. I realize now that when I first introduced myself, all of you were thinking "Oh Gawd -- she's got one of those awful kits. We'll just be polite and not say anything." Well how the hell am I supposed to learn anything that way?
Second aside, for those of you who missed the first post: this kit was a gift from my husband, and part of the gift was his manpower and skill to do most of the building. Now, my husband is an attorney and works about 80 hours a week. Whatever time and skill he devotes to this he is basically taking out of his sleeping time. He is doing it because he wanted to give me something I've longed for, but he also wanted to make it himself, so that when I played it, he would part of it. If the gurdy never plays a goddamn note, that's a better present than a five figure custom built instrument.
Now, down to brass tacks: Alden says:
The Musikits instrument, for example, has a piece of 1/4" cold rolled steel rod threaded on each end for the shaft. In the time I have before I go to bed, I can't really even start to outline the mechanical problems with this choice in terms of stability, repeatability, precision and longevity.
OK, fine -- so what is an acceptable modification? Why does this not work? I can understand that Alden, who after all makes and sells a very desirable line of hurdy gurdies, is not obligated to help me salvage an instrument from a different maker, but if someone else wants to, for the sake of intellectual exchange, clarify what is wrong with this material and how someone reasonably adept at fiddling with wood and metal could improve the design (without access to a machine shop, I suppose I should add.)
Oh, and I can't pass on this, from JULIE BARKER:
respected UK maker Chris Eaton had a career making high-precision parts for missiles before becoming a hurdy-gurdy maker.
That's really impressive, and really interesting. But the character I play was born during the reign of Henry VII. I'm fairly sure the luthiers of the Tudor era did not have the technology to machine metal parts to NATO Mil Spec. What did they use? How did they do it? What is a reasonable approximation in the 21st C.?
And speaking of that -- I won't even ask if any of you have ever worked a RenFaire. Have any of you ever been to one, and seen the conditions under which the entertainers work? The weather can be anything from 45 to 105 degrees, Rain, wind, mud, dust. Little kids putting their sticky hands on your stuff. Would any of you take your expensive, touchy instruments into such an environment six weekends in a row, for fifty dollars a day and tips from passing the hat? I won't take my best harp to a RenFaire, that's why I've got two backups. (One of which my husband built. From a kit.)
Kathy Hutchins [EMAIL PROTECTED]
