Hi Christa. I just want to mention that Felicia's reaction was nothing unusual in the situation. I've often done the same when people have opened windows or doors next to my hammered dulcimer, as would anyone playing a harp, khanun, valiha, or any other instrument that's similarly sensitive to temperature & humidity change. (That included my violin during the brief time that I tried using gut strings.) Stability and ease of tuning are two good reasons why guitars and mandolins are so popular.
What I've found with my gurdy in the 14 months I've had it is that the more time I spend with it, the less time I have to spend adjusting and tuning it. I was up to about 4 hours a day of gurdy time over the summer, and could often just pull it out of the case, give each string a quick tuning adjustment as I set it on the wheel, and I'd be off. Now I'm lucky to get a couple of hours a week, and we're back to an unpredictable time spent tweaking the bridges, cotton, rosin and tangents every time I start. Some days I run out of gurdy time before I have it where I want it. When that happens I just play a quick tune on it (if there's time), whatever state it's in, before I put it away. I'm confident now that, in the long run, any day I mess with it and remind it what good set-up feels like is better than a day missed. On Dec 19, 10:50 am, Christa Muths <[email protected]> wrote: > ... > I remember some years ago Felicitas Dale came to play in the U.K. I knew > nothing about hurdies then. During the break I opened the window (which was > next to her hurdy) because the air was very sticky. Felicitas ran over from > the other side of the room, calling out: "Please don't open the window, > please shut it. My hurdy doesn't like it!" > > I was totally confused and not quite sure wether I had heard correctly or > wether she was somehow from a very different planet. ... > > Christa -- 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.
