Anyone have one of these?

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

...the guy was apparently incapable of getting his hurdy gurdy fully in tune.

Surely, there must be a bunch of youtube videos on how to tune a hurdy gurdy?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Surely, there must be a bunch of youtube videos on how to tune a hurdy gurdy?

Oh, no doubt. But something about mountain dulcimers that I had to deal with as a teacher was that so many of them are aimed at people who want a "rustic," deliberately old fashioned instrument that many dulcimers have friction pegs that aren't necessarily very accurate or well-fitted. As someone with good ears who's also a serious musician, dulcimers with inadequate tuners used to drive me crazy, because with a lot of them you can only get them kinda sorta in tune.

It wouldn't surprise me if that guy's hurdy gurdy was also tilted more towards a rustic appearance than built as a serious musical instrument. If he was a beginning or only somewhat talented musician, he might not even notice the difference (which, I'm pretty sure, that guy did not.)

I'll mention one story about that intentionally rustic quality: at one of the very first bluegrass festivals I played, after my set a vendor who had a booth there sought me out and asked if I could show him how to get his dulcimer in tune.

He had a fairly good quality dulcimer, a teardrop model made of good wood but which had a long peghead and four handmade wooden friction pegs.

I should mention that this guy was dressed head to toe like someone from the 19th Century: he wore those knee high Apache style fringed leather moccasins, jeans, a hand tooled belt with a buckskin pouch and a Barlow knife hanging from it, a drawstring shirt, a silver and turquoise neck pendant and one of those high crowned, flat brim black hats with beadwork around the crown.

He handed me the dulcimer and I looked at it and told him: "The problem is that these friction pegs aren't particularly well fitted, but even if they installed properly they won't get and stay in tune as well as a set of guitar gears will."

He said: "But I really like the look of the wooden pegs!"

I told him: "I understand that, but you asked me how to get it in tune. The answer is to put some modern tuners on it. Those pegs on there now are inadequate for getting steel strings under that much tension in tune."

The last thing he said was "But I really LIKE the look of the wooden pegs..."

So for him and perhaps the hurdy gurdy player I met years later it was the visual appearance that was more important than the functionality of the instrument. The guy at the bluegrass festival wanted a musical instrument that would reinforce his 19th Century mountain man self-image, and wasn't willing to sacrifice one small aspect of rusticity to have a dulcimer that could actually be played.

Short version: the hurdy gurdy guy probably bought the cheapest hurdy gurdy available, and like many "tourist grade" musical instruments it probably wasn't completely tunable.


whm

[Jeff Scott]

Maybe, banjo tuners with wood spindles on them to look like friction pegs would have been be a suitable solution for him.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Maybe, banjo tuners with wood spindles on them to look like friction pegs would have been be a suitable solution for him.

Yes, but that wouldn’t have been something that he’d be willing to pay for and have installed. What it came down to with that guy is that the appearance was much more important to him than anything else.

Plus, even back in the 1970’s, good quality banjo planetary tuning gears were considerably more expensive than the Schaller mini tuners I recommended to him. The nylon casing Schaller minis were only $12 a set for six tuners, but the planetary tuners were much costlier.

Besides, that guy wasn’t going to work on playing music, he just wanted me to wave a magic wand and make the crude hand-carved wooden pegs on his rustic-looking dulcimer suddenly stay in tune.


whm

[catt]

Nice to see the discussion here. I havent read through all of it yet.. I'm quite fond of zithers and other ephemera. The reason gurdy is quite loud compared with bowed harps, fiddles, lyres, et al is largely due to the wheel exerting more pressure/friction on the strings. Othe factors also influence, but there's a reason gurdies often elicit the 'caterwaul' word. I had a gurdy, but at the same time I was getting into free reeds, and...the free reeds won.

I've long wanted a n.harpa - especially a big one for their wonderful timbre, but I assuaged my longing for hardanger fdl first. Nharpa are harder to acquire in the states, although more folks are being turned on to them. I still pick up the odd Swedish or Finnish tune, but trad scand and particularly Norwegian has called me from way back ..

Zithers - of all kinds, I've always loved them...played a hammered dulcimer for a long time to assuage that sound. But wire harp (trad gaelic harp) took me over, and wire guzheng (chinese long zither).