It's just so depressing!!! Here is this enthusiastic, eager, ready to
learn person with an unusable instrument that they spent good money
on. :( It's just so depressing- and so frustrating and it happens
WAY more often than is necessary. I think I've only been able to help
about three or four of the twenty or more people who asked me due to
the poor quality of the gurdy they bought.
Felicia.
On Apr 13, 2011, at 11:41 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Well said, Felicia!
We went through the same thing recently, trying to give a beginning
lesson and spend some setup time with someone who came to us with
her unplayable "gurdy". It was a painful experience for all parties
concerned.
Mitch Gordon
Guerneville, California, US.
In a message dated 4/13/2011 11:25:43 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected]
writes:
Having tried to help a number of people with GSOs, including one
poor fellow with THREE of them, I have to speak up here.
I know a decent gurdy can be very expensive and the advanced
instruments prohibitively so. The problem is that gurdies are not
like other instruments in that while a beginner can learn something
on an inexpenive guitar or fiddle it's nearly impossible to make any
kind of progress on the equivalent gurdy. It is so hard to meet
with someone who wants help with their gurdy and find that they have
not just a GSO but one that is virtually unplayable. It's like
saying you have a car but what you really have is two bicycles taped
together with a sewing machine motor between them. It may have four
wheels and a motor but it is NOT a car. These things look like
gurdies but they do not do what a real gurdy can, which is to have
the potential to make lovely music even when you're a rank beginner
with only the barest idea of what to do with it. And every
musician, beginner or master, deserves a decent instrument to play
on. It's not that a beginner needs the sort of gurdy Chabanats or
Eatons play on but you do need one that they wouldn't want to kick
out into heavy traffic.
Again, I know a good gurdy is expensive. It's worth using a credit
card or saving for one and well worth the wait when the alternative
is to waste money on a piece of crap that will NEVER, EVER be a real
musical instrument and has the potential to break your heart, or the
heart of someone else if you try to sell it on. Please don't buy
these kinds of instruments unless they're second hand. At least
that way you won't be encouraging bad builders and you'll help
someone out who made the mistake I'm trying to help you avoid.
I know I sound passionate and opinionated about this. You might
feel the same way after all the times I've tried to help someone out
with their gurdy and been simply unable to do more than be
sympathetic because they have a GSO instead of a real instrument.
And believe me, when you've spent $3000 on a GSO and an experienced
player tells you that you got taken that can really hurt.
Felicia.
On Apr 12, 2011, at 10:49 AM, Michael McMillan wrote:
> I doubt that his customers are happy...
They all left positive feedback. At least they could see what they
were getting.
If you've gotta have a gurdy, but haven't "robbed any banks"
lately, what's a desperate person to do? ;o) My first one I made
from scratch and it could hardly be said to be a "GSO," as it is
box-shaped. I had fun fiddling with it, but it only made me want a
better one, which I suppose will happen with some of these folks
eventually, which is good. My "toy" one still impressed a lot of
people who knew nothing about hurdy-gurdies.
And I'm no musician, so what business do I have getting a
horrendously expensive instrument that a fine musician would find
acceptable? Other people will be in the same boat. But I do have
aspirations, and am working on a much better one.
I'm not defending these particular instruments, just saying people
are at different levels and need instruments to match.
--Michael
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