Hurdy Gurdy request

Jack-Flash-Jr

Anyone know where I can test drive a hurdy gurdy? Missing my koto and starting to get a bit of GAS for alt instruments (hence my ebow query a while back). Being a huge drone fan I think this might be up my alley but I'd have to try one out first...

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote Anyone know where I can test drive a hurdy gurdy? Missing my koto and starting to get a bit of GAS for alt instruments (hence my ebow query a while back). Being a huge drone fan I think this might be up my alley but I'd have to try one out first...

Cool instrument if you like drones.

Don't know where you'd find one.

Apparently they require some TLC. You have to make sure that the wheel that drives the strings is turning correctly on it's axis (which means they are vulnerable to bumps, knocks and drops) and you have to keep the wheel rosined.

inflames

So that is what it is called ?

I know Eluveitie (Folk Metal Band) use one!

Must be tough as hell to play one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy_gurdy

Bob-Dubery

inflames wrote So that is what it is called ?

I know Eluveitie (Folk Metal Band) use one!

I think Ritchie Blackmore's medieval band use one as well. Richard Thompson is an amateur hurdy gurdist and has used it on some album tracks and for recent incarnations of his "1000 Years Of Popular Music" show. Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" has no hurdy gurdy on it.

If you want to get into hurdy gurding then apparently Nigel Eaton is da man.

Must be tough as hell to play one?

At a basic level you have a crank to turn and a small keyboard. I suspect it's one of those things that is easy to get going with but surprisingly difficult to master (IE like most instruments).

There's a kit you can buy. Or used to be.

Riaan

I think Ritchie Blackmore's medieval band

He does, and with great effect. It goes nicely with Blackmore's guitar solo's. After seeing him using one, and the dude on the Unledded DVD with Page and Plant, I've been interested in them as well. I've been wondering about the possibility of getting plans and building one. I've also been searching, without success, for a hurdy gurdy synth sound. I guess someone who knows synths should be able to create one?

Bob-Dubery

Riaan wrote
I think Ritchie Blackmore's medieval band
He does, and with great effect. It goes nicely with Blackmore's guitar solo's. After seeing him using one, and the dude on the Unledded DVD with Page and Plant, I've been interested in them as well. I've been wondering about the possibility of getting plans and building one. I've also been searching, without success, for a hurdy gurdy synth sound. I guess someone who knows synths should be able to create one?

The thing with this kind of instrument and synths is that it isn't just a case of getting something that sounds right and setting it up on the synth.

A hurdy gurdy sounds the way it does because of it's constraints. Recreating a note that sounds like a hurdy gurdy note is one thing, making what you play SOUND like something played on a hurdy gurdy is quite another. Think of some of the awful things that have been done with "harmonica" or "saxophone" sounds on a synth.

I'd forgotten about the hurdy gurdy on Unledded. I've got the CD somewhere. IIRC they used it on a great rework of "Nobody's Fault but Mine".

Bob-Dubery

For those of you who are interested in what I believe is not that easy a project...

http://www.hurdygurdy.com/info/build.htm

Riaan

Interesting Bob thanks. Looks like I'll fall short with the metal lathe and the patience requirements...

Maybe I'll start off with some clothes pegs and cardboard in a bicycle wheel, and work my way up from there!

Bob-Dubery

THinking about the way (as I understand it) a hurdy gurdy works, I wonder if it doesn't have the same attribute that the great highland bagpipes have - that you cannot stop it sounding and thus cannot have rests in whatever you're playing.

inflames

http://www.hurdygurdy.com/info/build.htm

Thanks Bob!

Jack-Flash-Jr

Build one? I don't even have time to practice guitar ? I first heard it on Song Remains the Same (Zep live movie)... I like the vibe enough to keep looking... there was a guy from Durbs who built medieval instruments?! Anyone heard of him?