One very silly question: what measuremends make a HG an alto? What is the string length of the melody strings? Marc Reymen ----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Namens Ulrich Joosten Verzonden: vrijdag 2 november 2007 19:43 Aan: [email protected] Onderwerp: AW: [HG] Weichselbaumer HGs Hello Jay and all others, Hm - "smoothie sound" is for my opinion a question of personal taste. For me the Alto sound was exactly what I was looking for. I played a Jean-Noel Grandchamp lute bodied Hurdy-Gurdy (why I still own and love), but in the past few years I was a little bit tired of the "normal", sometimes "squeaky" sound of a regular tuned instrument, either of Auvergnat or Bourbonnais tuning. For accompanying singing the Alto sound I do like much better. And I preferred the Alto sound more than e.g. the sound of a Siorat - even if I personally like Denis' instruments very much. Plus: Denis is one of my oldest acquaintances in the hg area. I met him at the Frankfurt Musikmesse some decades ago when he just had started building HGs. I was searching for whatever stuff on hg's and so I met Denis. WE had a great time discussioning hg's, and we frequently met at St.-Chartier. I deeply admire this guy for what he did for the instrument and for players like Valentin and Gilles. Also an old friend is Helmut Gotschy and his instruments are very good. But, for me, I heard a Weichselbaumer Alto at Rudolstadt and got instantly hooked. I always wanted one afterwards and many times I thought how much I would love to own one. Finally, I had the money and bought myself an Alto gurdy. I never ever regretted this decision. I LOVE my Alto and would never change for another instrument. My Alto has four chanterelles, especially I love the deep G and also the nearly Cello-sound of the deep C string. Besides the low strings I also have G and C-Octave chanterelles. The chanterelles have two capoes to fix them on step 1 and 3. I decides also to invest in a capo system on all 3 drones and trumpet strings (really expensive, but worth any penny). Finally I got little levers to lift the chanterelles easily. Plus, of course, I got the 4-way-amplification My experience with the Alto is: it took a lonmg time to set it up perfectly, and this needs some effords. In the beginning it is not so easy to handly Wolfgang's tangent system and one can set them up for a perfect tone, but you have to learn to do so - it's a little bit tricky. Also, it is not easy to put cotton on the wound strings, especially the drones and the high g chanterelles may be tricky to get cotton. In the beginning I have had the problem not to notice that the flexible nuts in the tangent box got loose. Just a little bit and not very noteable, but it nearly drove me crazy to ste up the tangents and getting out of tune while playing. But once this issue was identified and the bolts tightened the instrument is sheer joy. Tuning is very, very stable, I barely need 5 Minutes to tune the instrument. Often I just get it out of it's box, turn the wheel tentative and listen just to notice: perfect. Yes, it takes some time if new resin is needed plus new cotton, but afterwards it is joy again. Also: the sound system is perfect: just plug and play. Once you've found your "e-sound" it is very easy to play on stage. Recording is great since you can adjust all four string groups independently (or if you want on one master channel). Recording is great: Plug the four channels into a Presonus firepod and there you go. For the more progressive ones it may be a great toy to experiment with effect pedals. I connected a YAMAHA magic stomp acoustic guitar effects pedal between my gurdy and the mixing device. Due to the fact that you can put the effect just onto the chanterelles you might get some great sounds. One can download sound patches for the YAMAHA and so did I with some heavy distortion and / or overdrive effects. It is fun, even if traditionalists may wrinkle their noses. Okay okay, I'll stop here. You may have notices that I am deep in love with my instrument. Maybe, Jay, this helps. If you got more questions, just drop me a PN. Best wishes, Uli _____
Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Graham Whyte Gesendet: Freitag, 2. November 2007 18:52 An: [email protected] Betreff: RE: [HG] Weichselbaumer HGs I have heard an Alto played live by Matthias, and also played one myself Gilles Chabenat chose one to play at OTW 2006 when it was impossible to bring his own Siorat I think my immediate reaction was "would I get bored with this amazing smoothie sound ?" Never the less, a wonderfully versatile instrument His more conventional HGs also have a smoothish sound but with more bite to it Graham -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 02 November 2007 17:13 To: [email protected] Subject: [HG] Weichselbaumer HGs Dear Fellow Members of the HG Clan: I am seriously considering purchasing a Weichselbaumer "Alto" model HG. I love the sound and the look of this HG. I thought I would reach out to the HG community to get your thoughts and input on this very important decision. I have heard it played extensively by Matthias Loibner - a most gifted HG artist along with sound files from Wolfgang's web site. Thanks, Jay _____ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail <http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/index.htm?nc id=AOLAOF00020000000970> !
