That is a very curious statement to make: That it will cost a lot of money
to make your own instrument.

I'm fairly certain that most hurdy gurdies made in the last thousand years
prior to the 1950s were all made with hand tools -- probably just a few
saws, a carving knife, and maybe a gouge or two.  Sure, you can use a 10,000
dollar band saw to cut the wood, but a hand made Bow Saw will work just
fine.  It will take about twenty times longer is all.

Perhaps you're also accounting for time spent.  With expensive specialized
tools and jigs a professional builder might take 20 to 200 hours building an
instrument (depending on the "add-ons" such as inlay).  A beginning
woodworker with a couple of hand tools might expect to spend 50 to 500
hundred hours building a relatively simple instrument.

So if you are one of those people who believe that the only instrument worth
having is one with superior craftsmanship, exquisite detail work, a flawless
mirror finish, and a famous maker's name, then you'll just have to pay the
big money.  If you're a musician and just want a great sounding personal
instrument (and don't have a rich uncle or girlfriend) then I say grab the
tools you have, gather the materials you can find and start putting in some
hours.

-S

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 11:28 AM, Augusto de Ornellas Abreu <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Just be prepared to spend a lot more than the cost of a luthier-made gurdy
> if you want to build your own.
>
> You will have to go through many fumbled attempts when building each of the
> pieces, you will have to make your own specialized tools, you will need to
> get a hold of some expensive equipment to make those tools and many of the
> specialized parts (you can save by buying some more difficult parts from
> HGCrafters, etc, for example)
>
> Building a gurdy from scratch makes no sense if you think about cost only.
> You will probably spend way more than if you just bought one from a maker.
>
>
>

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