<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Hurdy Gurdys are strange instruments to be sure... many sort of look like violins with a kind of keyboard mechanism attached. I saw a bunch of these on display in the fantastic museum of musical instruments in Hamamatsu this past june. They come in all sizes and there were plenty of variations on the basic design. These are also somtimes called symphonias I think. Heres a link to a sound example <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/sounds/hg_hires.aifc">http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/sounds/hg_hires.aifc</a> Heres a couple pictures I found on the net of modern copies of older designs. If this isnt more or less the same thing as your customer has... perhaps he has the name mixed up with something different ?  A pict ure would be nice :) <img src="cid:part1.00000502.07090203@grieg.uib.no" alt=""><img src="cid:part2.06030807.05070509@grieg.uib.no" alt=""> Cheers RicB J Patrick Draine wrote: <blockquote cite="midE816BAC5-E1B3-11D8-8E73-000A95CF5360@comcast.net" type="cite">I have a customer who has what he calls a hurdy gurdy. A quick Google search of that term reveals something completely different, so allow me to attempt a description, and hope for some enlightenment/direction from y'all. The thing has a strung back like a "birdcage" or "cottage piano", and has a large cylinder which, when cranked, drives leather covered hammers, producing a cacophonous din. It hadn't been tuned in many decades, but with the aid of a SAT II with the oscillator-to-speaker plugged in, I managed to chip it within 150 cents of 440. The customer of course is sure it's priceless, and is looking to sell it for big bucks! Anyone have a more precise name for this thing, or a website somewhere out there with further information? Patrick _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives">https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives</a> </blockquote> </body> </html>