Exactly you will eventually get a good instrument, and have a lot of fun along the way. But, by the time you manage that, you will have spent more money in trial and error and building gurdy-shaped objects that sound terrible than a normal starter-level instrument costs from a reputable maker...
Isn't it obvious? By all means, DO build a gurdy of your own. I would do it myself if I got the skill and time for it. But don't do it if you intend only to save money. You won't save any money, you'll most certainly spend more. For some people it's worth it, but it is not certainly cost-effective. Augusto On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 9:57 PM, Alden F M Hackmann < [email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Mon, 24 Oct 2011, Steven Tucker wrote: > > That is a very curious statement to make: That it will cost a lot of money >> to make your own instrument. >> > > For a professional level of instrument, I believe this is the case. > > > 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. >> > > Wow, what shop bandsaw costs $10,000? > > > 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. >> > > I wish it were that simple. It's not just a matter of time, and it's not > just a matter of tools: it's a matter of skill. As builders, we serve the > sound of the instrument, and to get a really good sound requires substantial > skill, time, good tools, and good materials. If you set out to build a > hurdy-gurdy, be prepared to find that the first one is essentially an > experiment to lead you down the path to building the second, and probably a > third. > > I'm not trying to dissuade people from building their own instruments, just > to dissuade them from having unrealistic expectations about doing so. > > For what it's worth, the old builders who sawed their own wood to thickness > and cut it with planes and saws and scrapers and files were AMAZING. > However, they also spent years and years learning their craft as > apprentices, so that by the time they were building, they had amassed ten or > twenty solid years of hand skills that I can only dream of having. That's > not 500 hours, it's more like 25,000 hours. The Industrial Revolution > changed all that, and now we do it differently, investing money in tools > instead of time in skills. Either way, to get a good quality result, you're > going to have to make an investment somewhere. > > > Alden F.M. Hackmann [email protected] > > "Beati illi qui in circulum circumeunt, fient enim magnae rotae." > > > -- > 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 > hurdygurdy+unsubscribe@**googlegroups.com<hurdygurdy%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/**group/hurdygurdy<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<http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm>. > To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the > webmaster. > -- 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.
