Re: [HG-new] Digest for hurdygurdy@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[Michael Muskett]

I have read many complaints that the HG always needs constant adjustments. It occurs to me that beginners may not realise that hur dy-gurdies swell and and contract with the changes in temperature and humidity, changing the pressure of the strings on the wheel. 

 Bouin, writing in the 18th century, recommended that instruments should be kept away from heat in a stable environment. wrote, 'On rising you should place the vielle in your bed, covering it well. And tat was central France where the climate is fairly stable.  In Britain we are between two weather systems in constant conflict.. . And the US with its many weather systems. How do you cope?  Sorry. I mean how do you manage? I am told that Americans do not cope. They fix it.

Happy days.

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• Musette - 2 Updates

Musette

Joosten Ulrich <ulrich....@online.de>: Apr 30 12:21PM +0200 If you like the idea you absolutely should check out:   http://www.germandiaz.net/cardiofonico/   Best, Ulrich

Felicia Dale <cruiks...@pintndale.com>: Apr 30 04:51PM -0700 Thank you, Ulrich! I’ll give this a look.   Felicia.

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[Wolodymyr Smishkewych]

Hello all,

Back for another moment from my phases of lurking/posting, I thought I’d add a little idea to the mix, plucked from my brief time as a student of lutherie at the Indiana University’s violinmaking programme in Bloomington, IN, USA. Tom Sparks, a Cremonese-trained maker and also award-winning fiddler, imparted daily nuggets of wisdom in addition to the daily curriculum of violinmaking instruction…one of these was about acclimatisation. Most people know that anything living can get acclimatised to new temperatures and humidities, such as you and I, and to an extent, our instruments. Tom recommended the following:

Within the case, the instrument should live in a silk bag with a drawstring. 

Since getting somewhere early is always important, here was an added perk: acclimatisation. Arrive an hour before your required instrument time. 

When you arrive, open the zipper or latches on your case, just a crack no more than a cm or two, to let in the first of air. (T minus 1h)

15 min later-open the case, keep the instrument in its silk bag. (T minus 45m)

30 min later-take the instrument out of the silk bag. (T minus 15m)

5 minutes or so, whenever you need to, tune up. The instrument should have acclimatised slowly to temperature and humidity by then.

The silk bags were simple affairs, basically like pillowcases with drawstrings at the open end. Many were sewn by one of the local graduate assistants, a wonderful builder named Tomoko who now likes in Japan. Recycled silk works just as well as purpose bought.

For whatever it’s worth! This was one of the coping mechanisms, which allowed for longevity of instrument and saved a lot of grief. It worked with the wood’s property for acclimatisation and avoid subjecting the instrument to brusque changes in temperature & humidity, by removing climate-barriers progressively.

Greetings to all,

Vlad

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[Melissa Kacalanos]

I've heard this, but either my hg is unusually stable, or I'm unusually tolerant. Maybe both. I think Balázs Nagy, who made my hg, might make them unusually reliable and stable. I've taken it camping to music festivals, played in a slight drizzle or snow, etc, and it's never required what I would consider an annoying amount of adjustment. 

I think the fact that I (at least used to, three kids ago) play it for about four hours a day, almost every day, meant that I had a good playing:adjustment ratio. Also, I keep a Dampit (humidifying sponge) in the case with it, so it never got too dry. Also, I almost never change the tuning of the strings. The strings have been playing the same notes for years. Any instrument will go out of tune if you keep trying to retune the strings and don't give it a chance to settle in to one tuning. 

Melissa the Loud

Sent from my iPhone (pardon my brevity). 

[Felicia Dale]

My Hubbert has always been pretty stable even right out of the shipping box it came in but it’s seen a LOT of different weather since then (20 plus years ago now) and has become fairly predictable in its reactions. It travels in a cotton bag inside a soft case that is pretty well insulated unless I’m flying and then it travels in a Pelican case. 

For the most part it’s major changes in humidity that really messes up the tuning so if I’m taking it from a dry car into a damp room I expect it to need at least half an hour to settle in before I do tuning corrections. Depending on the level of change, of course, this can take more or less time. I always try to leave at least an hour before gigs to allow it to fully adapt to the changes (treating it something like is described by opening the case and letting it get slowly more exposed to its new environment) and expect to do more tuning at the break if a heater gets turned on, if someone opens a window, if it’s raining a lot and more people come in with their wet clothes, etc. 

Excessive dryness has also been a problem, though, with playing at a renaissance faire in Arizona being the worst time, ever. No matter how I tried to keep it hydrated it was almost impossible to do so due to something like 15% humidity being the average. So, even though it wasn’t terribly hot (in the mid 80s most of the time) and we were mostly able to stay out of the sun, most of the time I was only able to play about ten-fifteen minutes at a time before the rosin would slick up, the cotton would get choked with dust and the pitch would go seriously south. The good part about this was that I can now usually do a complete set up (from cleaning the wheel to being ready to play) in about fifteen minutes, ten if I don’t have to talk to anyone. At the time it would bring me to tears, though, because for every one of our five sets of the day I would have to set it up from scratch to get it to play for that short period. Not easy, especially for the five or seven weekends we were there! But it was good experience in terms of learning my instrument and how to make it work in difficult situations. 

But once in a while I don’t have that hour plus to allow it to adjust. This hardly ever happens because William and I are chronically ridiculously early for gigs but once in a while events conspire that put us behind schedule. We arrived at one festival with only the time to change our shirts, grab our gear, literally run to the stage and immediately start playing- and my Hubbert was in perfect tune even after several days on the road in its case. It did need a tweak or two midway through the set but nothing major. 

On the other hand, I’ve had times where I’ve done every last damn thing entirely correctly to make sure the creature is happy, adjusted and ready to go- and had to stop almost immediately to make some major fixes. So… there you go. 

F.