Thank you for bringing us back to the whole point of the thread.
Someone who has no knowledge of HGs who wants to buy a kit or make one
from scratch and then sell it for a good profit.
Many of you have pointed out that to make a good HG needs a lot of
experience to tweak the thing into playing correctly (no plan, no matter
how perfect or perfectly made, is ever going to play without those
tweaks that make each individual instrument just that - individual.
The skill of the maker has some magic too - think of a Strad Vs a
Chinese factory built violin.
One needs to ask "what do they know that I don't" when thinking about
woods. There's a reason why certain woods are used otherwise we'd all be
playing plywood instruments (as it's cheap).
I doubt any professional makers would select an expensive wood just
because it's expensive.
Yes, with skill comes the ability to do lots of things but what about
the time?
I'm sure if the professional makers didn't allow for that, their
products would be a lot cheaper. If it's your own time then, like any
DIY project, there's no labour charge so yes, it's going to be cheaper
of course. Several hundred hours of work isn't going to come cheap after
all.
For the original poster - even presuming he's the best joiner in the
world, he's not going to make a profit unless he too adds on his time -
and that's going to make it expensive (so possible profit) but what's
the customer going to say when it doesn't play - purely because the
maker doesn't know how to make it play properly.
For goodness sakes, how long did it take us to learn how to cotton!!!!!
Colin Hill
On 26/10/2011 15:06, Barbara Currier wrote:
Okay, folks, everybody has gotten off onto the "can you build it" track.
Yep, you can build one, and if you are playing it yourself and tweaking
your life away (or rebuilding and tweaking, like us), go for it. It can
be a rewarding and educational endeavor. My problem with the original
post is this fellow, no matter how skilled at woodworking and
well-intentioned and loaded with personal integrity he may be, intends
to sell his gurdy for a profit when he's done. He does not play, has
stated no intention to learn, has not indicated he knows anyone who
knows anything about playing the hurdy gurdy to play his creation and
advise improvement, just intrigued with building one.
Yes, if you have good woodworking skills, can find good plans and follow
them to the letter, you can build a good looking instrument, which will
probably sell on ebay. But, will it sound good and perform well? Or,
without intending to, will you have taken money from someone who thinks
they are getting a bargain and a playable instrument and failed that
customer (who being new at the instrument himself may not know it for
quite some time)? How many on this list have bought instruments that
turned out to need a lot more money and work to make them playable, even
had to have them rebuilt or did you give up dream of playing (probably
more people not on this list gave up)? How many would have been better
off saving their initial investment, waiting and adding to it, to get an
entry level professionally built item instead of someone else's
woodworking experiment? It stops being all about you and your skill,
tools and investment when your full intent goes beyond "gee, I want to
try to build one" and goes on to "I need to sell it for a profit." You
can build a playable guitar if you are good at following plans and
directions, but a one-off hurdy gurdy fit to be sold to an aspiring player?
I've got a problem with that.
Oh, and by the way, when considering the cost of materials and trying to
keep that under $500, don't forget strings (decent strings, essential to
sounding good), or is gut string making from scratch in the plan, too?
All the Best to all concerned,
Barbara
On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:00 AM, Steven Tucker <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
So this discussion seems to have boiled down to two camps, those who
say it's possible to make a good instrument for a low cost by
spending enough time on the project, and those who say it's
impossible to make any instrument without spending more money than
buying a professionally made one.
So those of you who say it'll cost you more to build one than buy
one, where are your numbers? What exactly is it that is going to
cost more money? I'm seriously interested in specifically what you
are thinking the money will go towards. Do you truly believe you
can't build a good sounding instrument without spending thousands of
dollars on exotic hard woods (and therefore a beginner will ruin
more expensive wood than a new instrument will cost.) Or do you
believe that only a $600 block plane will make the proper top for a
good sounding instrument?
Lets have some specifics, not just a generalized "it'll cost more"
statement.
-Steve
On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 10:27 PM, Kazimierz Verkmastare
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote
[snip]. . .
It is a project done for enjoyment, and because I am wasting
resources as I am building knowledge, it is NOT going to be
significantly more economical than if I had commissioned it.
... that it will end up expensive (the cost is truly inversely
proportional to your skill and resources),
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