NEVER BUY this 5 hurdy gurdies if you want to learn properly… In my previous article, I was showing you the gurdies that you should consider buying if you are a beginner, but today we move to the dark side, today you will see the models and luthiers that you should AVOID, or what in hurdy gurdy slang we call HGSO (hurdy gurdy shaped object), they look like gurdies BUT DON’T BE FOOLED, they are not good instruments.
1. uGears
Would you try to go to Jamaica on a model ship? I wouldn’t, and I definitely wouldn’t expect learning the hurdy gurdy on a puzzle, yes it makes sounds, but a paper ship also floats, so it’s not the best idea 😛
not to be confused with the NERDY GURDY, their look is “similar”(?) but they are night and day, this uGears is a nice wall hanger tho! and fun project for you or your kids.
It was very fun when they stole an audio clip by Andrey Vinogradov (who plays a 15.000€ Hurdy Gurdy) and put it in their advertisement, don’t be fooled, hard pass.
2. Fairy Gurdy / Galdrshop
We all like fantasy and fairys, but the only magic powder when we want to learn how to play the hurdy gurdy is rosin, very colorful “instruments”, of course you have your patty gurdy green colour available, but also small wheel, wrong key layout, wrong geometry, odd crank and a large etcetera.
Larp show off, colorful wall hanger? buy it, want to learn how to play? Don’t buy this hurdy gurdy
The owner of the shop very politely asked me to remove the copyrighted pictures (Sorry mr. Mateusz), but here is a link of the Etsy page where you can see their certainly cool pictures, while I find non copyrighted ones. —> Galdrshop <—
It has to be noticed that the maker is not using the name Fairy Gurdy anymore and goes by Galdrshop, but still the same instrument, so any information related to Fairy Gurdies that you see on the FB groups or Reddit aplies to Galdrshop.
I guess I can keep the video as it’s public in Youtube 🤷♀️
3. Chinese Hurdy Gurdy
Did you see it on eBay or Aliexpress? this look very fancy, some with flowers, some with a dragon head, some with very nice wood grain, shiny colours, green, blue, red… but RED FLAG, they are unplayable instruments, Song is the name of the chinese maker, I hope some day they learn how to make proper student instruments for decent price but nowadays, nope, just don’t buy.
As I told you before, show in LARP? Theatre prop? BUY, other purpose? no no no…
4. Workshop Medieval
1600€ it’s expensive, it must be good, right? ERROR, when you buy a 1.000€ fridge, it will probably be a great one, BUT this doesn’t happen with hurdy gurdies. again, colorful designs and suspicious celtic knots, fantasy friendly, no waiting list, buy in one click! too good to be true, this is a complete disaster.
it’s a shame because the finishes look very cool, and the shapes are nice, you can make some sounds with them, but not good for the money, I have a full review of this model on my Youtube Channel, don’t buy this hurdy gurdy
5. Gateway Gurdy
Join the revolution they said… this guys are the best smoke sellers.
They made a big kickstarter, and got 30k+€ to fullfill the promise of a fully functional off the shelf hurdy gurdy. what did we get? a ukelele with a wheel. :/
does it make noises? yes, sounds? yes, can you play some melodies on it? affiramative, can you really study hurdy gurdy with one of this things? nope
Here I leave a review by the great Jimi Hellinga, you can also find a list of flaws made by the comunity in reddit.
Like honestly, you can think it doesn’t sound terrible, but we all know that people who sell HGSOs are masters of getting them to sound OK just long enough to make one short demo video, and then they go TWANG and stop working, so I will keep NOT recommending this gurdy.
and invite Neil Campbell to send an updated instrument for a second review if he wants to proove that it really works as a student instrument.
PS. Fix your crooked keys <3
Gateway gurdy knob falling 🙁
And here’s some Reddit drama about the gurdy if you want to read.
BUT THEY HAVE GOOD REVIEWS
Ok, let me explain what the Dunning–Kruger effect is, or better, let’s read a propper definition from the internet.
-The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias[2] whereby people with low ability, expertise, or experience regarding a certain type of task or area of knowledge tend to overestimate their ability or knowledge-
If I buy a circular saw tomorrow, I can say it’s good, I can say it works for me, I can firmly believe that it’s a bargain and the best investment of my life, but it’s only because I don’t know what a good circular saw is.
Real story of me buying my first Sitar
First, let me tell you a short story, in 2013 I bought a sitar for 1.400€, I thought it sounded amazing, it worked for me, It fullfilled my needs! but two months into my sitar learning, I met with a professional sitar player and tried his instrument…
I WAS BLOWN AWAY, I just discovered that my sitar sounded like a banjo (no offence, banjo players :P) , and that all the effort I was making to tune and to pull the strings properly was loosing my time, because a real sitar just was A LOT easier to play, so yes, I had to step back and realize that I knew nothing and that I did a very poor research before buying my sitar.
Don’t be like me, trust the experts, talk to real players, there are not mixed reviews, there are informed opinions based on real knowledge and uninformed opinions based on emotion or ignorance.
In conclusion, I hope you learned which hurdy gurdies you should never buy and why, if you have further questions or opinions, send me a message using the contact form, or talk to players!
Keep on cranking
Sergio González
Are you a 👉 👉 hurdy gurdy beginner 👈👈 looking for recomendation on what to buy? check more articles!