Tania, that's been my experience too. The more time I spend with my
gurdy the more the balance goes from tweaking/tuning to playing. If I
leave it in its case for too long it gets snippy with me and demands
quite a bit of tweaking before it's ready to play consistently again.
My gurdy is a 20+ year old Volksgurdy tuned in G/C with no bells or
whistles at all. Up until this last year it's been particularly
dependable despite the usual issues with gut strings, tangents and
humidity changes. This last year I spent most of my time on other
things and didn't get much chance to play it and right now it's being
a total pig about everything. Oh, well. Back to the grind stone...
Felicia.
On Dec 20, 2011, at 12:28 PM, Tania wrote:
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.
--
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.
