What The Hell Is That Thing?
Last month, the following video appeared of the Dead Milkmen playing an acoustic show at Crash, Bang, Boom:
Since then, my inbox has been flooded with literally ones of emails asking for information on the instrument I’m playing on "Joe’s Song with No Name/William Bloat" (and later played on "I hear your name").
The instrument is known as a "Hurdy Gurdy", although most hurdy gurdy players call them "gurdies" for short. Although there seems to be no consensus on exactly when and where (and for that matter, why) hurdy gurdies first appeared (although many musicologists believe it was developed in the Middle East sometime around the 9th Century, not unlike the Plague), it’s universally agreed that they reached the height of their popularity during the Renaissance. Hieronymus Bosch even included a gurdy in his painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights."
So, how does a hurdy work? What sets the gurdy apart from other interments is that it has a wheel, which is turned by a crank, over which both its melody and drone strings pass. This wheel is coated in rosin, by the way, just like a violin bow. The melody string passes over the bridge, through a "keybox", to the tuning pegs. Inside the keybox are tangents which press against the melody string when the keys on the outside of the keybox are pressed. The drone string sits outside the keybox and simply rests on the wheel, producing one continuous note when the wheel is turned (and making the gurdy sound like a bagpipe).
A few facts about my hurdy gurdy:
- Although I’ve told people that my gurdy was built in 1802 by Elias Hurdy (who invented the hurdy gurdy and named it after his wife, Gertrude), the truth is that I built my gurdy, myself, from a kit I purchased for about $500 from Lark in the Morning. Then I had some adjustments to the bridge and wheel made by Chris DiPinto of DiPinto’s Guitars fame.
- After my gurdy was completed, I got the not-so-bright idea into my head to stain and paint it. This completely changed the sound (for the worse), and it took nearly a decade for the wood to cure.
- I currently only have one melody string - set to open D – (see photo below) and one drone string (G) set up. I’ll be adding a second melody sting before the end of the year. If you watch the video carefully, you can see me play an open D, an E (first key), and a G (third key)
- You may have noticed that I’ve painted "Vienna" on the keybox. When my wife asked me why I named my gurdy after her, I replied that it was because it’s high-strung and cranky.
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If you're thinking about buying a hurdy gurdy (building them often turns out to be more expensive in the long run), then I strongly suggest that you start your search HERE.