"For goodness sakes, how long did it take us to learn how to cotton!!!!!
Colin Hill" Leaning how to cotton took me longer than anything else. Back in 1998 there wasn't a lot of info out there. All I found was brief explanations about what kind of cotton to use and how important it is. Nothing about how to actually use it! It was a few months later, after getting very frustrated, that someone finally put up a site that at least explained where it goes and more-or-less how it was done. After that it was just a matter of experimentation. Dave The Hurdy-Gurdy Man, ________________________________ From: cwhill <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [HG-new] Re: Affordable Hurdy Gurdy Construction 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), > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hurdygurdy" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > <mailto:hurdygurdy%[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. 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