Beginner Hurdy Gurdies 3: What to buy
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- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- Here we go! After two videos we get to the sauciest one: cheap Hurdy Gurdies on the market and where to find them!
For more information on this subject, join the facebook group / 3362108523805844
The instrument described in the video are
Gordiy Starukh
Vrabel
Robert Mandel
Traunecker's TPV
Henry Renard's Colibrì
Fairy Gurdies
Nerdy Gurdy
Sentorus 
Видеоклипы
Nice to see another positive remark for Robert Mandel's work. Near the end of February we ordered a symphonium to receive in six months, and a Mandeline a little more than a year.
Hi again... the update on my home-brewed 'Symphonie' gurdy. To be honest, as I type this reply I am listening to you talking on the above clip. In my defence, I have no ego whatsoever, if my gurdy build works, then splendid luck to me. Any groaning and squeaking rendition will suffice to encourage me to be more outrageous in my endeavours. From life experience, I realise that personal ambition means that the average person is reluctant to pay out substantial amounts of money just to try a gurdy, or any musical instrument for that matter, without attempting to see how they fare with one first. This is why I chose to build one to see where it takes me. It is also a rather splendid project for my confusing abilities.
I first constructed the basic box from Sapele boards, then a thinner base board was fitted to make a resonating chamber in the bottom. The idea being, that there will be no holes cut in this board at all. It seemed logical to me to not interrupt any resonance by putting slots etc into it. The shaft/wheel assy etc was then installed above the floor on Oak bits, all glued in place. Then came the rather difficult making and installing separate string end mountings (now done). Then disaster struck when my Dremel machine packed up. I located the fault, eventually repaired it, but my spirits were somewhat shattered for a while. I eventually completed the slot I was cutting, and now I am making a weirdly shaped bridge to handle the five strings I plan on having. This is the state of play today. It currently sits beside me in the spare/music room at home on a dedicated organ stand with a board on top. This is because ambient dampness in the workshop made the thing begin to warp on the shaft/wheel assy.
I am still as keen as mustard to make this item, but life keeps getting in the way, and Arthritis is messing up my fingers again.
Still, I plough on regardless. I currently play a lot of slide guitar because of the fingers not being that agile anymore, various pub jam meets etc most evenings hereabouts. It still hurts though.
Later in the year I want to begin the construction of a tenor guitar, but we shall see...
How is your project shaping up..?????
I'll post a video in a matter of days showing how it went!
Pretty good list of beginner gurdies. I’m not so sure about Vrabel (heard they can be very hard to handle and set up) or Fairgurdies (missing trompette) but all the others are pretty solid choices for beginners.
I don’t think the little diss on Patty was fair. She is a professional and obviously has an expensive instrument. And I don’t think she ever mentioned you should get a 5 figures Weichelbaumer when you’re starting out.
I never mentioned Patty, and TBH I never watchm her videos altogether. Only video I remember was called "how I made my HG" in which she goes to a luthier workshop and has it built by him. Since then I've pretty much stopped wasting my time on HG videos on YT. I'm sorry if it sounded like a personal attack to her, it wasn't meant to be.
AAAAAnd back to the point, if you want more in-depth, I made specific reviews about those HG you mentiond, You'll find them in my channel!
@@CaptainGurdy OK, sorry. Thought it was about her because she’s the only Yoububer I know who has talked about the price of her gurdy. Also, pretty tired of the whole Hurdy Gurdy and elitism/gatekeeping discussion. I know no one in the community who tells beginners to get the most expensive instrument.
@@Monoceros15 Thank you. I'm a gurdist myself, and part of the Hurdy Gurdy Community on Facebook. It's very tough to deal with all the accusations of elititsm when we are not elitist. We want to protect people from spending too much money on something that will not last and will quite probably not give them joy.
Hi: I thought I might add some observations on my own hurdy-gurdy journey.
I started out with one of those "Musicmakers" kits, maybe 30 years ago or so: it sufficed to make a slightly musical noise; and I managed to cobble together a somewhat workable trompette for it. Still, it was, in retrospect, pretty inadequate. I later bought some plans for a six string instrument from the same source, and came up with a spectacular-looking, but ultimately disappointing, product. Both kit and plans were, as I later realized, badly designed: the inner bearing was directly under the bridge; and there was no soundpost, which made for a feeble tone.
Finally, after joining an online HG group, I managed to snag a second-hand Phoenix Da Vinci from another player, and finally realized what a hurdy-gurdy *should* sound like. I have since been tweaking it a bit, putting in metal tangents, and switching to octave tuning on the chanterelles. Admittedly, it wasn't as cheap as the instruments you have reviewed; but it was considerably less expense than buying the instrument new.
I might recommend that last option for some beginners: find a player who wants to upgrade from a (good) starter HG to something more sophisticated, and work your way up in turn.
Yes, I agree that buying second hand is often a good solution.
video starts at 3:45
Well I stumbled on your site by pure accident, and I have to give a vote of thanks to you. I have been playing guitars and so on for years, now I am retired from work, I have begun making amateurish instruments, Cigar Box Guitars, Ukelele's etc etc. The latest is a Symphonie hurdy gurdy. I knew nothing at all except that I like the sound. Using my engineering background, I have a reasonably constructed, accurate spindle/wheel assembly, the next phase is the string anchor system, before any bridges are constructed/installed. Then we get to the tuner system.... this is an obstacle that tries the patience at the moment, but I will overcome. A question though, having subscribed and listened to you, are all the strings shown on another clip of yours, the same for all strings, or varying gauges..????? I guess right now, that 'C' Viola strings are the way to go for the beginning, but am I wrong in assuming that they are all the same, just tuned differently..??? It is all experimental at the moment, but my intention is honourable I assure you...... I cannot buy yet another instrument without serious divorce proceedings, hence the home manufacture......!!!
No problem. The chanters have the same gauge, while the bourdon is thicker - I don't even remember what string I'm using at the moment but I think it's a guitar E or something. The chanter, on the other hand, should be thinner, so it can be tuned one octave higher than the bourdon, for example.
How's the project going? I'm starting to make one too, keep in touch!
If you want more info on hurdy gurdies, we have a couple of groups on Facebook, such as Hurdy Gurdy Community, Hurdy Gurdy Marketplace, and a builders group dedicated to Nerdy Gurdies. The Hurdy Gurdy Community is very open and has a lot of pro playres and builders that are very willing to give you advice :)
Not having any luck finding one in Texas just looking for one for practice to learn before I have a hurdy gurdy made and drop 4 thousand plus on one
Thank you for the great videos! I'm torn between a Vrabel and Fairy Gurdy. I'm going to have to ponder it more lol
I think that overall the vrabel has "more bangs for your bucks" but you should also check the latest fairy models and also the tuning are different (I use the vrabel to a very uncommon C tuning but it is supposed to be set to something strange like E).
@@CaptainGurdy yeah. I like that with the fairy gurdys there's little fiddling with it. And for a first one to know if I like it that definitely has some appeal to me. I play other instruments that I have to fiddle with all the time for a good sound
@@MeSillyWoohoo I do really hope you haven't bought any of those yet, because there are some real structural problems with both Vrabel's (they're really hit or miss), and Fairy Gurdies (also known as Hurdy Gurdy Shaped Objects). Both are gurdies, in the sense that they look like one, but they are very, very bad for beginners as they require a lot of maintenance that even seasoned players do not routinely do.
If you want more info about different hurdy gurdies, check out Hurdy Gurdy Community on Facebook, or the channels Zanfoneando, Scott Marshall, Neil Brook, and MM Instruments/Ancestore. We're always willing to help you find a gurdy that's good quality, gives you the best playing experience, and does not (completely) destroy your wallet.
@@BlitzsieLDiscoLSnow I did join the group and I left because everyone was condescending and rude. Even if I eventually went with a robert mandel symphonia everyone in the group was honestly condescending and I didn't want any part of that community. This comment thread is also 6 months old.
@@MeSillyWoohoo @MeSillyWoohoo oh wow, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you got the wrong group then? All messages I've seen about Mandel is that he makes good starter gurdies, with the symphonia and the mandeline. It may also be my Dutch directness that I don't experience a whole lot of things that others may see as rude. There is one dude that does leave snarky comments, but he does get called out on that to prevent stuff from escalating.
And about comment threads being old, I don't care. If it prevents people from buying stuff that has a high possibility of leaving them disheartened and not finding joy in their instrument, then my job is done. As long as I can easily lead people to a place where they can get more pointers on where to get info about gurdies, both from a newbie, intermediate, pro, and teacher point of view, then I'm happy.
But again, sorry that you had such a bad experience with the Hurdy Gurdy Community. How long ago was it that you joined? Maybe there's been a change of behaviour?
Hi, what's about the russian masters? I know some mastesr, those haven't published their works on Facebook, but still have pages on VK (maybe they are not fluent in english and that's why are more oriented to the russian costumers). There are several russian musicians, playing in bands with their instruments, those sounded not so bad, specially as a beginners set.
You're absolutely right. I have absolutely no knowledge of Russian and don't have a VK account, which makes it hard for me te get to know them. Same goes for example with many polish luthiers: without firsthand experience or thorough information on these hurdy gurdies, their specs, their price, their sounds, it's hard for me to assess them. I hope that might change soon!
@@CaptainGurdy the only russian luthier, who has more or less presented his works on Etsy and other social media, is Vasily Evhimovich. On one hand I liked the sound of his instruments, on the other hand they are not so cheap, compared to european luthiers. You can check is videos while searching Лирник Вася on RUclips. He also makes a lot of videos about instrument care and lot of tutorials for the beginners. Of course you cannot understand what he says, but at least you can professionally check out the sound quality of his works. I had a short talk with him and he recommended me another luthier from Russia with the budget-friendly instruments.
How would i go about buying one tho do i just message them and ask right out?
Yes! If you join the hurdy gurdy marketplace and hurdy gurdy community on Facebook you can message them directly through there
The Mandel Synphonia is, from the mail I got December 16, 2020 is; The price is ＄799,- plus the shipping to the US. (It is now ＄182,-)
Actually cheaper than i thought
@@CaptainGurdy It does "look" like a quality piece of work.
Is this USD or Euro?
I hate to admit it, but that’s my picture of the fairy gurdy.
Sorry, I hope it's not a problem! :D
Sorry, Robert Mandel is Hungarian living in Austria ;)
Oh right. My bad, Mandel sounded like a very german name to me!
@@CaptainGurdy It probably is tho, hundreds of years of Austro-hungarian monarchy had its influences. Great video BTW, really helpful, and with all the necessary infromations!
Yes vrabel is s bad maker
Uhm, no
@@CaptainGurdy well uhm,yes !unless you've got ulterior motives for not telling the truth?
Vrabel equals very bad workmanship,your better off giving tour money to charity.
Have you ever played one yourself?
@@CaptainGurdy yes unfortunately,and it took a lot o my personal Luther work to put it right and I also employed a commercial Luther to correct the wheel rim angle,plus replacement of tuning pegs with,witner geared pegs reboreing the peg holes ,repositioning and replacement of the adjustable bridge ,putting in adjustable thumb screws to raise and lower chanterelle Bridge ,I personally fitted an adjustable nut for the melody strings for fine tuning,
@@CaptainGurdyRE VRABEL HURDY GURDY, mainly the basic set up needed reworking,I also did some cosmetic alterations eg changed the keybox lid ,reglued some joints and cleaned them up re sanded, etc.. oh and I personally fitted 8 sympathetic strings something vrabel said he could not do ,I asked him before I purchased the gurdy but he said it could only be done whilst it was being made?I bought it as one of his ready made in stock models,yet I managed to add sympathetics and I'm not a commercial Luther. I put a lot of time and effort plus money into putting vrabels hurdy gurdy right so it was in proper playing condition,plus it cost me 650 pounds sterling ,including pap,and I must have spent another 600 pounds sterling putting it right, if he had not lived so far away in Hungary I would have personally thrown it back in his face literally, I mean I tried to communicate with him by email, and through the manager of the early music shop uk who sells his gurdys but he just did not want to talk about it ,even in the early days of my trying to contact him,I also changed the melody strings so now its tuned to cg ,so now my vrabel is completely re furbished it works well,and has a nice tenor tone to it ,due to the change of melody strings and lower pitch tuning but I would not recommend you buy his gurdys if you want a proper functioning sounding gurdy unless your prepared to make a luthier project of it and spend more time and money,I have since found a much better English hurdy gurdy maker whose prices are the most competitive,and he is fairly local,but he just makes 3,historical models a symphony for 1000 English sterling a large organistrum,for 1 500,English sterling, and a trapezoidal, marchand,Henry court for 2,500 sterling,he also makes the case for these at about 180 pounds sterling,if you are interested to reference him let me know he is in my opinion the cheapest and best uk hurdy gurdy maker ,compared to Chris allen ,Claire dugue and Neil brook who is more or less retired.