Felicia, that was kinda my thinking. That there would be players here that may be interested in my gurdy should I decide to sell it. But, I want to make the effort to learn to play it as it has sentimental value to me and I also had to wait almost three years for it to be built.
And, since it would probably be the only gurdy I would ever own, I wanted to have it with all the bells and whistles. I also wanted it to be played acoustically as well as amplified. I was very pleased with the woods used and the Hackmanns were very good at explaining the different types of woods and aesthetic qualities of each. I will check your web site and see when you're in this area so we can meet up. On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 11:31 PM, Felicia Dale <[email protected]>wrote: > > I hope you don't give up on that wonderful sounding gurdy. If you do, > please let me know right away. I'd be interested in taking a look at it for > myself and may know of others who need a high-end gurdy with electronics. > Of course, knowing this list a dozen other folks have already emailed you > privately with the same message! :D > > Personally, I think you were right to go for a better quality instrument > right from the beginning. If I could have afforded it myself I would have > done the same. Luckily, my Volksgurdy has done what I needed it to do and > only recently has been not quite enough instrument for me. I still love it, > though, that's for sure. > > Felicia. > > On Dec 20, 2011, at 6:42 PM, Jake Conte wrote: > > Hi Elisabeth and Kevin, > > By "high maintenance" I mean the whole cotton issue. Do I put to much > cotton, loo little cotton? Tweaking the tangents. One player once told me > not to worry about whether I put too much or too little cotton. Eventually > I should know how much to put on. Another roadblock was that I had asked > to have it set up in D/G as I play primarily Celtic music and figured D/G > would be better suited for that. > > And, not to dwell on Bruno's comments, but I just wanted to add that this > was going to be my one and only hurdy gurdy purchase and I wanted to get it > with all the 'bells and whistles' and I wouldn't be able to afford a second > gurdy. Now, I'm thinking maybe I should have bought a more basic model > instead. They did make a "Symphonie" model which was a lot less expensive. > > Thank you all for your inspiration. I will definitely make a go of it > and, hopefully, will not be putting it up for sale next year. > > Jake > > > > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Kevin Hughes <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hello Jake, >> >> I'm curious as to what problems you are encountering in learning to >> play. You used the phrase high maintenance in two of your emails. Could >> you be more specific as what these issues are? >> >> I was once asked to look an Orca from Olympic Instruments. A friend had >> borrowed it from another friend(who been give it as a gift but never played >> it) and thought that the bridge needed to be lowered(or the string notches >> made deeper) and wanted me to look at it and see what I thought. It turned >> out that he was trying to tune the open chanterelle to D and so the string >> was not making good contact with the wheel. I looked at the paperwork that >> came with the instrument, found the chanterelle should be tuned to G, tuned >> it, cottoned the string, did a bit of shimming, and the instrument >> played. (This was a couple of years ago and I still haven't seen the friend >> play it.) But it seemed like the instrument was close to being good to go >> when shipped. >> >> When starting out the cottoning and related shimming is the first hurdle >> to overcome. Neil Brook has a youtube video that is helpful for >> this. Next is getting used to turning the crank and playing notes. The >> Muskett book is good for this as are Neil Brook's DVD tutorials. Aftre >> that work in trompette technique. Scott Gayman has a great series of >> youtube videos on this. And as with any instrument consistent practice >> yields best results. >> >> You will of course have to replace the cotton from time to time. A >> tangent or two may shift and need to be realigned. There could be other >> issues that arise, however once the instrument is set up it doesn't seem to >> me to need constant tweaking. Other folks may have other experiences. >> >> I wish you well in your endeavors. >> >> Kevin >> >> -- >> 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. > -- 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.
