Well said, Leonard.
Felicia.
On Oct 29, 2011, at 11:16 AM, Leonard Williams wrote:
I built my own hurdy gurdy after years of longing to own one
without the means of purchase. I had some experience with
woodworking, some good tools (power and hand), and very good plans
for an early renaissance model purchased from a professional
builder. Because of the bizarre grain of the wood I had (American
elm), I had trouble finding someone willing to surface the wood (a
rough plank) to my dimensions; I had to rough it on a table saw and
get final thicknesses with a hand plane and scrapers. With some
patient telephone coaching from the designer of the instrument I was
able build a simple (no trompette, single chanter, 3 drone) hurdy
gurdy. Howerever, it was a number of years before I finally got the
“finished” instrument set up satisfactorily (This forum was a great
help in the final stages!).
I am no longer sure of the material costs, but it was far
less than a professionally built instrument. I am proud of the
result of my labors, and builcing my gurdy fulfilled a desperate
need. BUT—would I do it again? I think not—I’d try to save up and
buy one from a craftsman/artist who knows what he’s doing. This is
certainly not intended to discourage anyone from trying to build a
hurdy gurdy or any instrument on his own—by all means try it if you
really want to! I learned a lot from the experience and do not
regret it—just be aware that it requires a good deal of patience.
There is an element to instrument building that is purely
mechanical, but every collection of wooden parts is an organic
entity which requires its own peculiar tweaking to become a musical
instrument.
Regards,
Leonard Williams
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!~¿
On 10/26/11 4:46 PM, "Steven Tucker" <[email protected]> wrote:
Ulrich, why would want this discussion to stop? It's getting
really interesting. There is considerable knowledge and talent
here on this forum and I think the subject of "Affordable Hurdy
Gurdy Construction" is worth delving into. I guess I'm assuming
that someone who is looking into building their own gurdy will
search this forum and discover this thread an so it's appropriate
to discuss the costs and ramifications of attempting to build one
from scratch within a budget.
On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Kazimierz Verkmastare
<[email protected]> wrote:
Alden, I hope you don't mind me using you for an example.
Steve, will you agree with this statement - "If what you want is
an Olympic Chinook, then you shouldn't expect, unless you are Cali
and Alden, to be able to build one for less than they do. They
have streamlined production and amortized costs, and probably
can't lower costs (materials + labor + tools) further."
I would actually say that if what you want is an Olympic Chinook
then you shouldn't expect to be able to build one at all unless
you're Cali and Alden. Now if you were an experienced luthier and
had an actual Olympic Chinook in front of you, and were experienced
and proficient at top voicing, then you might expect to be able to
make a reasonably good copy, but not for less than they do.
So say you want a Chinook, if you are as skilled and
knowledgable as the Hackmans, you can build yourself one for
probably $1700 or $1800, real cost. (Don't remove labor cost from
the equation - your time is worth it).
I agree with almost everything you've been saying except the part
about counting labor time as real cost. Now this is true if we're
talking about someone who is thinking about going into business of
making hurdy gurdies to sell, but if I want to spend my unpaid time
on learning about and building a hurdy gurdy, and don't buy premium
AAAA luthierie woods, then my total cash outlay for a Chinook-like
hurdy gurdy would be around $300 or less -- even accounting for
precision bushings and a shaft from McMaster Carr and a AA spruce
top from Luthier's Mercantile.
The expensive exotic hardwoods and highly figured woods that
luthiers use in their instruments don't have anything to do with
the sound quality or stability of the instrument. ( I could launch
into a huge discussion proving this statement, but it's already
been hashed out quite thoroughly in many forums and technical
papers.) Beautiful wood is an artistic choice.
[...]
Tools? You don't need tools. A pocketknife, a piece of broken
window glass, a hacksaw blade nailed to a bent willow twig, a
carpenter's pencil and a leather punch, that's all you need,
right? No.
I would contend that all you need is a bow saw with a thin blade
and a thick blade, a luthier's knife (made from an old file), a
steel scraper, a drill, and possibly a wood carvers gouge.
(Assuming you buy the shaft, bushings, and top wood).
[...]
[...] But a player who wants a good instrument but can't afford
one and has little woodworking skills does not stand a great
chance of success in building a great gurdy fast and with only a
couple of hundred bucks to throw at the project. And those are
the folks we address here.
A few years back, at a music camp, I met a very excellent gurdy
player who had built his own. It had a great sound, easily
comparable to the $5000 range instruments also at camp. It was the
first instrument he ever built (he was about 24 years old), and he
made it using only hand tools and a power drill in his apartment
living room. The body was a converted $10 classical guitar, the
shaft and bearings were wood, and the wheel was made from a scrap
of Baltic Birch plywood. It was quite fascinating to watch the
"nose in the air" disdain from other gurdy players turn to
mortification when they realized that this disreputable looking
instrument made their very expensive showpiece sound like a thinly
wailing rodent. (their words, not mine, said in good jest I'm sure.)
This kid wasn't a genius, didn't come from a professional
woodworking family, had only had the experience of playing on a
friends gurdy "a few times". He told me it took him about two
weeks of evenings to put together and the hardest part was cutting
the key guides and getting the dog to buzz right.
-S
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