I'm looking for a unique instrument

Subject: Tech: I'm looking for a unique instrument.
From: GUEST,Mary V.
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 08:17 PM

The Oscar Awards nite...a man was standing an playing something that looked sort of like a skinny guitar...
but it had a crank on the right hand side and he was turning the crank the whole while.
Can anyone fill me in on what that is?
Thanks from Mary V.

Subject: RE: Tech: I'm looking for a unique instrument.
From: Ed.
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 08:20 PM

Sounds like a Hurdy Gurdy.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Allan C.
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 09:12 PM

Click here for a previous discussion.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 09:42 PM

It WAS a Hurdy Gurdy...and

what a wonderful sight to see.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 12:17 AM

Not as unique as the violin with a trumpet bell on it that a gypsy was playing on the subway in Paris last September. I got a picture.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: LadyJean
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 12:19 AM

If I'd known there was going to be a hurdy gurdy, I would have watched the Oscars.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Lil Dog Turpy
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 12:20 AM

Do you know how to tune a Hurdy Gurdy?




no one else does either!

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 03:24 AM

leeina, that's a phonofiddle, Temperance Seven used to feature one, popular in pre-microphone days.

RtS

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 03:44 AM

Leeneia,
Details HERE

RtS
(sorry, I mis-typed your name in last post!)

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 09:26 AM

Oh, Hell, the link doesn't work!
Try google image search on "phonofiddle" for pics & infor.

RtS
(memo to self: always test links before posting!)

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: John P
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 09:33 AM

While it was nice to see a hurdy-gurdy in the Oscars, it would have been even nicer if he had actually played the thing so a national audience could get to hear one. Or better yet, if they had hired a real player to play it instead of having the instrumental sounds supplied by a violin and a cello. That song would have been beautiful with a hurdy-gurdy accompaniment.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GLoux
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 09:35 AM

Is a phonofiddle the same as a Stroh Violin?

-Greg

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 09:39 AM

RtS - it works if you click "see image alone" - the instrument being played looks as though it might be a one-stringed phonofiddle which were not uncommon. I gather that one of the reason that the phonofidde was developed in the first place was because proper fiddles didn't record very well on the original Eddison wax cylinder system.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 11:09 AM

This is all most interesting about the hurdy-gurdy and the phonofiddle.

Who was it that recorded the song about the Hurdy-Gurdy Man some years ago? Think of all those non-folkies who heard that song, wondered what a hurdy-gurdy was, and now have seen on on Oscars.

I'd like to have a hurdy-gurdy, but expense prohibits. I don't suppose I would use it that much.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 11:28 AM

GLoux - I believe that the Stroh and phonofiddle are the same. A deceased friend had a genuine Stroh.

Within the last three or four years his brother, also a fiddler, made a trip to Tailand (I think) and found by chance some fairly good replicas of the Stroh were being made there, and bought a couple.

They came with either brass or silver-looking (some kind of alloy) horns. He offered me one for about $300 U.S. - I don't know what he gave. So, they are available in some parts of the world.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 11:33 AM

Donovan Leitch recorded (and I think he wrote) 'Hurdy-Gurdy Man'. It was reputed to be about a seller of illegal substances (LSD?) but I was too stoned to understand it. :0)

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: freda underhill
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 11:40 AM

if you're interested in other unique instruments, check out this site..

http://www.colinofford.com/enter.html

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 11:44 AM

This web site has instructions on how to make a playable hurdy gurdy for twenty bucks. . .
http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/hurdy.htm

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 12:33 PM

Even though I am not in the least interested in a hurdy-gurdy, I found it interesting to note that the original poster referred to the musician playing it on the Oscars as "a man"

Sting has been around forever and has been quite visable.

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: Willie-O
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 12:47 PM

Last fall I visited a fiddler friend to rehearse for a gig--he had a phonofiddle sitting on his piano! I asked about it so he let me play it. HIs old fiddle teacher had given it to him. The playing feel was not too bad, but the balance a little odd, being top-heavy. The sound surprisingly full, but not surprisingly, a little tinny...

And now I know what it was.

I wish I'd asked him to play it--I wonder what it would sound like with a really good player. He died last month so now I can't ask him.

W-O

Subject: RE: I'm looking for a unique instrument
From: GUEST,Maurice
Date: 11 Mar 04 - 03:04 PM

Stroh replicas are (were?) available from Elderly.com, about $500