Geoff during a workshop with Dominique Forges during a festival in Quebec roughly two months ago, he strongly advised against unison tuning in G/C, saying that the correct way was to use octave Gs as well, similarly to what people do with D/G gurdies.
He was quite adamant about that, saying that tuning in unison Gs, even with the same string, by the same maker, etc, would always lead to imperfect tuning and a poor sound altogether. I do have octave Gs on my gurdy and it sounds beautiful, as some friends here may attest from meeting my gurdy in person... Augusto On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 4:56 AM, Geoff Turner <[email protected]> wrote: > Steve, > > Not sure where you get the idea of slightly de-tuning the chanters to get > a vibrato effect. All the hurdy-gurdy players I know spend time tuning the > tangents so that there is no vibrato. \Although the hurdy-gurdy has a > reputation of being played slightly out of tune, this should not be your > ideal. 2 chanters is mostly for volume, and to get an octave effect on the > D/G tuning. Multiple drones are for changing octave or playing in a > different key. > > One of the most important aspects of making the keys is in making the two > rows of tangents contact the string at precisely the same moment. This can > be achieved by trimming wooden tangents, or making the fully adjustable > metal ones. > > Most players would think that 'fully-functional' means following the > French norm of 2 chanterelles, octave tuned for a D/G tuning or unison > tuned for a G/C, with a petit bourdon, gros bourdon, mouche and trompette, > and therefore 6 strings. > > Geoff > > ------------------------------ > Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 16:55:15 -0700 > > Subject: Re: [HG-new] Proposal on Hurdy Gurdy Construction topic > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > Excellent, that seems to answer several questions. I surmise the extra > chanter strings, aside from tuning the tangents slightly off each other to > get a "chorus" or vibrato effect, also serves to increase the volume of the > melody strings in relation to the drones? > > That would seem to suggest that our hypothetical model should have two > drones, and two chanters for the most flexibility, but that will add some > complexity to the build as the tangents will have to be carefully adjusted > laterally to apply equal pressure on both strings. > > -S > > On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 2:51 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > ** As it happens, Steven, the Hackman's "minstrel" model is three > stringed; one chanter, a trompette and one drone. Mine doesn't have a lot > of volume compared to other gurdies, but the trompette and chanter are more > than enough for it to sound like a gurdy. > ------------------------------ > * > * > > > -- > 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. > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
