The bearings are already prepared, Lignum Vitae
(from my oldest stock, 4 pieces that made up a shaft
bearing in an old steamship. This wood is pressure,
oil and steam 'seasoned', and is tough and stable.
I made a roofing hammer head out of a piece, had to
use metal milling equipment to make the hammer head,
and used it through a whole season of building a
large addition on my parents house. It was an
amazing hammer - it is now the property of a close
friend who still uses it to this day.
I have some new Lignum Vitae on the shelves for
not-so-critical projects, but this one gets only the
very best.
Was Lignum Vitae a European wood available at that
time? I thought it was indigneous to the West
Indes, so at that time (The late 1300s - early 1400s
in Europe it probably would not have been known. I
was thinking perhaps oil soaked linden or ash, as
both were strong and common woods of the time, might
have been used as bearings. I will use Lignum Vitae
because it maintains the spirit of the build, and I
think that it will start out similar to what might
have been used, only maintain that standard longer.
Again, I am not going for the experience of being a
medieval owner of a medieval instrument. I want the
sound experience, and I want to be able to maintain
that experience over time without a lifetime of
mechanical maintenance.
Chris
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 2/7/2008 at 9:02 AM Reymen Marc wrote:
Doing this and wanting only the best, I think you
MUST use lignum vitae bearings...like in those
days...
marc
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Nogy
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:45 PM
Subject: Re[2]: [HG] purpose of my new project.
I will likely build with a laminated wheel. I know
by firsthand experience what a solid maple wheel can
sound like when true, and what it can sound like
when off. And if it is rosined properly, the
end/edge grain difference is minimal.
I fear I have been misunderstood - I fear people
think I am after the shabby, almost unlistenable
sound of the average early peasant gurdy. I don't
think that all medieval instruments had to sound
bad, in fact, I believe that just like today there
were all sorts of levels of instruments and
builders, and that there was a Nagy or a Hackmann
back then, doing exceptional work with the materials
and techniques available, and turning out
exceptional instruments limited only because the
technology of the time didn't include all the
adjunce techniques we now can use to further mold
the sound of a good instrument.
My point in all this being that it was possible to
have a good, or even great, sounding instrument in
the middle ages, but we tend to spend a lot of time
learning how to make changes to an instruments tone
by materials choice, preparation (top carving and
using depth calipers to perfect every thickness,
nylon or roller bearings, things like that). The
technology available in period could produce a very
precise machine. But it would be limited to a
certain type of sound because builders had not yet
discovered all the adjunct technologies that we use
today to affect and fine tune the instruments.
These options simply were not available in earlier
times.
Thus my question about curved vs flat top. There is
a significant difference in the sound between the
two. If the curved top would have been an option at
the time gurdies first were fitted with trompettes,
then a great builder, recognizing that this was a
way to improve the sound, would have fitted the
instrument with a curved soundboard. But if the
knowledge stopped at flat tops, then the builder
would have built the best flat topped instrument he
could, and the instrument would be limited by that
design characteristic, but could still have had a
nice, pleasant, workable and usable tone. It just
wouldn't have sounded like a curved top instrument.
A person performing at a high state function for a
Crown would have spent time preparing his
instrument, greasing and truing and doing what
needed to be done to make it sound right. It might
not have stayed that way, but it would have been
able to sound good for at least a while. The 'best
that the instrument could sound' is the sound I am
wanting to recreate, and if using modern materials
and techniques can allow me to kind of 'lock in'
that sound, then I am not against doing so. But an
instrument that has the visual and accoustic
properties of the very best instrument of the period
at it's very best sound, that is what I am after.
(Oh, and it simply cannot be a Henry or a Bosch. It
just can't. Non-negotiable.)
It is a rather stuck-up and elite pursuit, but I
want to have the very, very best medieval gurdy
around, and to be able to truly and accurately
demonstrate how good that instrument could sound in
a period atmosphere playing period music in a period
way.
Chris
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 2/6/2008 at 1:31 PM Roy Trotter wrote:
Confidential to Chris, this is not the worst (not
the Best either) of the old recordings. I don't own
any of the field recordings under discussion. I have
heard enough to lose interest.... The biggest
problem in the early recordings is lumpy wheels and
squeal. There was something on Youtube of a very
pretty girl playing fairly well, but the poor
machine was squealing like a pig in a fence. I
didn't run that one much, and can't find it now.
It sounds to me that Mr. Hogwood is not a HG player,
just somebody that was playing at the moment. (Is
this this was the same Sir Christopher Hogwood that
went on to fame as fortune as a conductor? ) The
notes are too passive. I may be spoilt to that
zesty, emphatic, precise playing of MM Imbert,
Bouffard, Chabenant, et al.
I understand and appreciate your project, but unless
you really like scraping the wheel everytime the
humidity changes, you really want a twencen
laminated wheel. In some of the old instruments,
there is some evidence that the shaft was pounded
into the wheel... I hope into a pre-drilled hole....
Players that have seen me build, comment on the
violence involved, but driving a shaft (pig-iron or
wood) into wheel like a nail is too much even for
me. I'm not trying to discourage you from something
you really want to do, but personally, I wouldn't
want an instrument that took all my playing time up
in maint. Carved body sounds interesting though.
Doing a re-rosin during a performance is par for the
course. I never liked performing solo, My first
choice for a partner is a good storyteller that can
keep an audience enthralled during an emergency
re-cotton. I refuse to true an oval wheel on stage.
OK call me a snob...
Roy
On Feb 5, 2008 11:46 PM, Kathy Hutchins
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: "Thomas A. Frank" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> and dogs and cats will run from it
>
> Is this a common occurrence when playing the HG?
>
> I ask in all seriousness, because I am quite
interested in getting an HG,
> but if it scares the cats, it won't be welcome in
the house.
We have a number of odd instruments in the house.
Besides my harp and
embryonic HG, I also have a circa 1870 Erard grand
piano. My husband plays
viola, accordion, tenor saxophone, Irish flute, and
smallpipes. My older
daughter is a cellist. My younger daughter is a
percussionist, and has in
addition to the standard school-issue snare drum, a
bodhran and a medieval
rope tension drum. We have a wooden bucket full of
pennywhistles, recorders,
and bamboo flutes. Out of all these instruments, the
only one that affects
the animals (two dogs, eight cats) is a Generation D
tinwhistle. I don't
know what it is about this particular whistle, but
the minute I start
