Greetings Maraujo, My encouragement to you on your project. You will learn sooooo much by doing this. Looks like your on the right track with the harmonics at this string length. Remember to allow enough room for string excursion at this string length as it will be much more than a conventional sized HG. Though you could use solid wood to make a wheel such wheels tend to distort over time and become eccentric. Also, they are prone to swelling and shrinking much more than laminated wheels. It would be almost impossible to find the proper piece of wood for this application from a wood supplier as it would need to be a slice of the tree through its diameter such that the growth rings are circular and emenating from the center of the wheel. It cannot be made from not slab cut or quarter sawn wood which is most common. If you were able to find such a slice of wood it would have to be well dried without cracking . Though some supply houses offer such wood for bowl turners it is usually wet and develops radial cracking as it becomes dry. I would like to recommend that you stick with a laminated wheel. We have used these for years now and find them to be very good wheels. You do not have to do the lamiation work yourself as many wood supply houses sell hi quality void free baltic birch plywood in 5' x5' sheets. Yes, it is expensive but the wheel is the heart of the instrument and must not be compromised in quality. If you would like we can send you a high quality laminated wheel blank for about $15 as well as any other parts you may need to build your HG. Contact us off line if interested. Good luck on your project and show us some pictures when its done! Hurdygurdycrafters.com Mel and Ann
--- On Wed, 1/20/10, maraujo <[email protected]> wrote: From: maraujo <[email protected]> Subject: [HG-new] Re: Hello to all, I have a question about hurdy wheel theory To: "hurdygurdy" <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 6:38 PM Thank you all for your input, this information is all very useful. I think I have a plan... So, going by the dimensions of a standard 4/4 cello, my vibrational length would be about 23.5". It seems my best bet is to maximize the overtones of the drone strings by having 1/12 of the total vibrational length between the bridge and the center line of the wheel (for 23.5" that would be about 1.96") this should, in theory, give me the first 6 harmonics of the string? I guess I would want that fraction to be a little less for the melody strings so that I get the most overtones I can as the tangents shorten the length. Im using an online fret- calculator for my tangent positions. As for the wheel itself, It seems an 8" x 1" wheel would be somewhat properly scaled to my new dimensions? I need to do some more research before I start making the wheel. I'm new to working with wood, I mostly work with metal for my job so for ease I had planned on turning the wheel out of a solid piece of walnut of preferably bigleaf maple (as suggested by the Hackmann's website) can anybody suggest any good wood alternatives? Am I making a serious error by not using layers of laminate (maybe laminate is not the right term to use) wood for the rim? I understand that some expansion will occur along the grain but I am clueless as to how to laminate a wheel. Thanks again for all your help. On Jan 20, 3:25 pm, Graham Whyte <[email protected]> wrote: > The vibrating length is varies depending on which key is pressed > The part of the string on the peg/nut side of the depressed tangent does > not vibrate > Because the bridge to wheel distance is fixed, HG players cannot > compensate for this as different keys are pressed > Guitar and bowed instrument players can and do compensate > In the 19th century Nicolas Colson made 2 styles of HGs with wheels > closer and further away from the bridge > Chris Allen has historic examples of both styles > My own Colson has the wider spacing and is so rich and sweet > > Graham > > Anthony Shostak wrote: > > George Leverett-Altarwind Hurdy Gurdies wrote: > >> By increasing the distance between the wheel & bridge, you might gain > >> a little in resonance (most noticeable in lower midrange frequencies > >> to my ears), but then the arc of vibration of the strings increases > >> too, and you may have issues of chatter against the tangents. > > Really? It seems to me that so long as the scale length remains the > > same, the distance from wheel to bridge should not make effect the > > viibrational arc, because the scale length is determined by the > > distance from bridge to saddle. Otherwise, the pitch of a violin > > would be different when bowing close to bridge than when bowing closer > > to the fingerboard. No? > > > Anthony -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
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