William and all,
I haven't read all of the responses to this, but
here's my response to your question
> Is there any particular reason why no one has
> produced hurdy gurdy plans or kits of a decent
> quality to facilitate the making of a first
> intermediate hurdy gurdy by a novice?
I don't think that anyone has made a violin kit that
can be successfully made by someone who has never
played a violin before. I don't think anyone builds a
bicycle without first learning how to ride a bicycle
built by someone else. Why should hg be any different?
If you've never played a hg before, you don't know
exactly what you're aiming for. Experience in how a
good hg is supposed to function would be enormously
helpful in building one.
Melissa
www.melissatheloud.com
--- William Gull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks for the timely response to my post!!! I am
> jointly working on this project with a mechanical
> engineer with a great deal of wood working
> experience so I have no doubt that we could piece
> together something on our own, over time based on
> our on going research. I just do not see the need
> to reinvent the wheel time and time again. It would
> seem to me that those who were passionate about
> hurdy gurdies would try and help others who are
> starting out by helping them avoid the early
> mistakes and setbacks they went through. I believe
> that knowledge not shared is wasted knowledge.
> Is there any particular reason why no one has
> produced hurdy gurdy plans or kits of a decent
> quality to facilitate the making of a first
> intermediate hurdy gurdy by a novice? It seems to
> me that there is a demand for something like this
> since so many on this list and on other websites all
> admit had their start by attempting to make their
> own hurdy gurdy.
> I know making a hurdy gurdy is a huge
> undertaking and most certainly not for everyone to
> try. I often hear repeated on many hurdy gurdy
> websites and lists the dire warning that you should
> not encourage a novice to attempt their first hurdy
> gurdy for it is sure to end in dismal failure. This
> poor end result will surely drive them away from
> such a wonderful instrument forever. Instead of
> trying to scare everyone away from trying in the
> first place, why hasn't someone tried helping by
> creating a functional set of plans or a kit that
> will produce, while not a professional grade
> instrument, something of an intermediate quality
> that will keep them coming back for more?
> I do hand engraving of metals, which is another
> passion of mine. It is a difficult art to learn and
> a life time to master. Most who attempt to learn
> the art do not follow through. They quit long
> before they reach even a novice level. Hand
> engraving is a dying art in this age of machine
> reproduction. Since it is a passion, I want the art
> to survive. So, I teach any and all who want to
> learn. Will most of my students follow through and
> pursue engraving? Probably not. But by removing
> the trial and error aspects of the learning curve
> and by demystifying many of the "tricks of the
> trade" almost all walk away with a positive learning
> experience. All take away with them a strong sense
> of accomplishment. The small percentage who wish to
> pursue the art further will have a solid foundation
> to work from as they journey down that road. As I
> said before, knowledge that is not shared is in the
> end, wasted knowledge.
> Just my two cents worth.
> Thank you for the many positive, helpful and
> encouraging responses!!!!
>
> -William Gull
>
>
>
> Juan Wijngaard and Sharon Berman
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I agree with Chris, it is entirely possible
> to build a working hurdy gurdy without plans if you
> want it bad enough, I did so over 30 years ago when
> information was even harder to come by than it is
> today, I had no woodworking skills and bought or
> borrowed tools as I needed them. I ended up with a
> pretty unique diatonic creation, made out of mostly
> second hand furniture but it looked like a hurdy
> gurdy and, maybe more by luck than judgement, it
> sounded like one too. Like Chris, I learned an awful
> lot in the process and had no qualms about getting
> in there with a chisel or knife to fix things when
> they went wrong or to add improvements. It was a fun
> thing to do. Just be prepared to keep going, to
> quote Roy Trotter: "Making a hurdy gurdy is like
> eating peanuts, you can't stop at one." By the way,
> the last HG I made was a couple of years ago, again
> without plans other than plotting out the keyboard,
> it was for my son who was three at the time, the
> body was made from a
> toy wooden boat. It works.
> Juan
>
>
>
>
> I am going to give a slightly different
> perspective to this issue, one I have given before.
> I am in the minority here, as I consider myself an
> amateur player of several instruments, not a
> professional, and while I enjoy getting better, I
> also enjoy everything else that has to do with the
> older instruments - the lore, the construction, the
> materials and techniques, thedesign and aesthetics,
> the personalizations and the integration of new
> technologies into the instruments. And I like to
> learn by doing, and I like to build things as a tool
> to learn. I built my first Sinphone (medieval
> box predecessor to a true hurdy gurdy) without
> plans, without a model to go by, with only some
> basic knowledge of structures, a whole lot of tool
> knowledge (and a bunch of tools) and 1 piece of
> information - 354mm. The vibrating string length.
> It is amazing what you can do with just that one
> piece of information. I used woods I knew to be
> acceptable from some of my previous
> instrument experiments. I experimented, and with
> some work I came up with an instrument that I enjoy
> playing and some folks enjoy listening to. I play a
> few French tunes, and I do the unthinkable - I play
> a bunch of bagpipe standards, things like 'The
> Minstrel Bard" and "Amazing Grace", and I play
> harmony parts on some old English folk songs and I
> even have my own cover of "Smoke on the Water". In
> other words, I do not fall into the category that
> most folks here fall into - students and performers
> of traditional Hurdy Gurdy. So while a
> professional would probably find my first instrument
> a dismal failure, I find it a spectacular success.
> I learned so much from that instument that I never
> would have learned by reading about or looking at
> someone else's work. And the second instrument I
> built, which was really just a technology tester for
> what will be a much nicer, late medieval piece of my
> own design, turned out better by leaps. So if my
> goal was to acquire an
> instrument on the level of Wolfgang or Cali and
> Alden's offerings, I failed miserably. But I
> acquired in my experiment so much more. I also
> have to say that I do not get discouraged. I will
> not let the moderate quality and excessive
> finickiness of my first instrument put me off from
> continuing to study and develop my talents, and one
> day I would like to be able to play proficiently
> some of the music I have seen videos for from OTW,
> but that will come and I have patience. I had
> made plans to be at OTW this year, but in a real
> surprise circumstance, my wife and I discovered we
> are going to have another baby in Spetember
> sometime, so I have to put that trip on hold for yet
> another year. But hopefully next year, if nothing
> major gets in the way, I will be bringing my current
> project and letting some of the experts critique it
> - that is how I like to learn and how I like to
> 'network'. And maybe someone more proficient than I
> will help me find the instrument's voice.
> So if you are the unique kind of individual
> that likes the ride as much as the destination, and
> you don't consider failures while learning to be
> anything but successes in disguies, then I
> whole-heartedly suggest cutting wood, making
> mistakes, building a few 'cats with digestive tract
> problems', having some leughs, and learning a ton in
> the process. If you like to figure things out
> yourself, it is possible. There are several
> reasonable plans, and a few books with plans and
> construction articles. You can, if you have hand
> skills and a technical mind, work through the
> problems and build something that will be, at least
> to you, a wonderful thing. But if you are mainly
> a performer, mostly interested in playing a really
> nice instrument, then I suggest just buying one.
> There are not, on the market today, any kits that
> will yield right from the box an instrument of the
> caliber any of the professional HG luthiers are
> building today. Chris
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
>
> On 5/26/2008 at 10:53 PM William Gull wrote:
> Greetings unto the list!!!!!! My name William
> Gull and I reside in Nevada, Iowa and I am a first
> time poster to this list.. I am a silversmith and
> hand engraver who does historical reenactments for
> both recreation and and as a market for my hand
> work. It was through my love of both medieval and
> 18Th century music that I was introduced to the
> wonders of the hurdy gurdy. Since then it has
> been an ever growing passion to learn to play one.
> First things first, before learning to play I
> need to find an instrument to play on. Being a
> hands on sort of person, I have decided I would like
> to try building one. I know this will be a definite
> challenge, but it is one I am willing to undertake.
> Like any new project I undertake, I am starting by
> doing research and gathering as much information as
> I can. There in lies the problem. While I am
> slowly collecting and reading as many books on all
> aspects of the hurdy gurdy as I can get my hands on,
> there seems to
> be almost no information on the quality of the
> hurdy gurdy plans and kits available. Does anyone
> on this list have any recommendations or opinions on
> the commercially available kits and building
> plans??? What would you recommend for the beginner
> as far as must have books? I appreciate any and
> all input that will get me closer to my goal of
> learning the hurdy gurdy!!!! In a shared hurdy
> gurdy passion, William
>
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