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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on March 10, 2010 at 4:15am

That was up on the site a while back, and one of the members made a nice "fiddle-gurdy" as he called it, using pretty much the same principals.

I have one "in the works", but I think I have to do a re-design. My wheel was not perfectly round, and it was also a bit too small in diameter. I was able to get a tone, but not a consistent one.
Also, I made all the axles and such from hardwood and they squeak....

Interesting idea.
Here's one link:
http://dennishavlena.com/fiddlegu.htm

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Permalink Reply by Dan Haugh on March 10, 2010 at 6:08am

what do y'all think would a good material for the axle part that rubs against the strings? would good ol' metal work, or would it need to be coated with something to apply more friction against the strings, albeit not too much friction as to break 'em?

anyway, it sounded great, i thought... i had been playing with the idea for a while, but this might've inspired me to do something about it.

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Permalink Reply by Fergus Morris on March 10, 2010 at 11:02am

the link here describes it as a nylon wheel.

Dan Haugh said:

what do y'all think would a good material for the axle part that rubs against the strings? would good ol' metal work, or would it need to be coated with something to apply more friction against the strings, albeit not too much friction as to break 'em?

anyway, it sounded great, i thought... i had been playing with the idea for a while, but this might've inspired me to do something about it.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Haugh on March 11, 2010 at 3:43am

aha! nylon! it's genius!

Fergus Morris said:

the link here describes it as a nylon wheel.

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Permalink Reply by Fergus Morris on March 11, 2010 at 5:04am

His design doesn't look that impossibly complicated either. Though i don't know how I would obtain a nylon wheel or those cogs. I really like the sounds he's getting too, I want to make one some time!

Dan Haugh said:

aha! nylon! it's genius!

Fergus Morris said:

the link here describes it as a nylon wheel.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Haugh on April 30, 2010 at 5:25am

well, i kinda-sorta went for it...
picture

kinda rough -- i think i might wanna try again and consider this a prototype -- but it totally works!

four bits of information for anyone interested:
a) i used a wood wheel at first, but the tone was overly abrasive (and that's coming from me), so i cut a wheel out of a old plastic cutting board. so yeah, use plastic (or nylon, or whatever).
b) look up "cottoning" in regards to hurdy gurdys. finding good ol' fashioned cotton fibers is WAY harder than you think it's gonna be -- i used cotton from a tampon. the cotton mellows out the tone, and helps the strings vibrate nicely.
c) apply LOTS of rosin to the wheel. the strings won't vibrate well and the wheel won't 'catch' em and slip a lot.
d) crazy, but it's actually much harder to play than you'd think. :)

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Permalink Reply by Keni Lee Burgess on April 30, 2010 at 6:39am

This thing is great. If this doesn't make the cats scream, nothing will! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy.

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