The Construction of the

~Henri 111~

Renaissance Hurdy Gurdy

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Woods used:!

Tasmanian Huon Pine. Botanical Name: Lagarostrobos Franklinii!

Tasmanian Myrtle. Botanical Name: Nothofagus Cunninghamii!

Black Heart Sassafrass!

This is the extant instrument in Paris that my Henri 3 is based on. I have
tried to keep closely to the original shape while making refinements to the
playability of the instrument.!
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Constructing the Body - (late May 2012)!
The assembled body!
The peg head!
PEGHEDS!
The Spindles!

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8
10
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Turning the Spindles!

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Drilling the axle holes!

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The Wheel and Shaft!

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Wheel Shaft details!

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The new wheel!

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The Sound board!

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The chanter string lifting mechanism prototype!

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String lifter pivots!

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Showing the mock up of the Chanter string lifters!

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Showing the return springs in action!

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The KeyBox!
Showing the key slot cutting sequence!

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Tenor and Bass drone String lifters!

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The Bridges!

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Adjustable Trompette and Alto drone bridges!

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The finished Hurdy Gurdy!

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Electronics Still under optimisation!

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Onboard

JFET

Preamp!

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Woods used:
Tasmanian Huon Pine
Tasmanian Huon Pine.
Botanical Name:
Lagarostrobos Franklinii
density 550 Kg/m3

Tasmanian Myrtle
Tasmanian Myrtle. Botanical
Name: Nothofagus
Cunninghamii
density 705 Kg/m3

Black Heart Sassafrass

Blackhearted Sassafras.
Botanical Name:
Atherosperma Moschatum
density 630 Kg/m3

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This is the extant
instrument in Paris that my
Henri 3 is based on. I have
tried to keep closely to the
original shape while making
refinements to the playability
of the instrument.

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Constructing the Body - (late May 2012)
Making the mold and dowel clamps

Showing how the

dowel clamps will
hold the bent end
pieces in shape until
they dry to the
shape of the mold.

Make a shooting board large enough to take the 500mm long soundboard

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Make up sanding boards to the same curve as the soundboard and back plate.
Each is a different curve. These will be used to give the front (soundboard) and
back (back plate) of the body their correct curve, once braces and linings are in
place.
Also make a shooting board for book matching front and back plates.

2- Make the body ears from huon pine stock. Join to the ribs. Then make
Round huon pine dowel and join to the other end of each rib. Use the mold
while glueing.

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3- Bend up the crank end
pieces on the bending iron. I
soak huon pine for 20min
prior to bending on the iron.
Make up end blocks from
huon pine. Glue the end
pieces to the end blocks and
the ribs.
Use the dowel clamps to
keep the end pieces in shape
while glueing. Do the same to
the tail end pieces. Once
dried, mark around the inside top and cut along this line. Measure down 10mm
from the bottom and cut around this line. This is the final shape of the body.

4- Make the back braces and fit to the ribs. Glue and peg (with bamboo skewer)
to ribs while still on the mold. This positions the braces correctly.

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5- Glue the shaped back linings in place between the braces and ends.

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6- Make up the back plate
out of 4 pieces of huon
pine separated by 5mm
thick strips of Tasmanian
Myrtle (Nothofagus
Cunninghamii.). Book match
the huon pine pieces.
7- Thickness the back
plate to 3mm thick.
8- Place the body over the
mold and mark out the
soundboard shape and
soundboard brace spacing
on the inside of the ribs. Take the body off the mold and shape the back on the
back shaping board.
9- Glue the Ribs/end pieces and end blocks to the back plate. Use the back and
front sanding boards as clamps.

Cut the back plate to shape (leaving a 2mm lip all around). Paste strips of paper
over the inside of each joint for support. Sand the top to the soundboard
profile using the soundboard sanding board. remark the centre.

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The assembled body

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10. Make up the 3 sound board braces . Make sure that Brace number 1 has its
14mm shaft hole predrilled prior to installing. Also make sure the 2 sound
posts are installed at the same time.
Split a billet of straight grained huon
Pine to turn down to 8mm diameter.
This is the sound post material. The
grain has to have no runout along the
length. It then gets attached to the
brace (soundboard and back plate brace)
using a tight fit drill hole and glue.

Install all 3 braces with glue and peg to the ribs (use bamboo skewers again).
Instal the buttresses using a spacer block. Thens glue in the buttress end
block level with the inner flange of the peg head tenon. Glue on the top linings
and sand the front (sound board face) to the correct profile using the sanding
board again.

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The peg head
The peg head is constructed out of 5 pieces of wood. This is to make the
stock of Huon pine needed smaller and give access to the shaping of the inner
parts of the peg head. Im using contrasting myrtle 5mm thick to balance the
strips of myrtle on the backplate and key box.

Route out the slots for the buttresses, key box sides and nut separator. Then
align the peg head on the buttress end block.
Make sure that it is at the correct angle to
take the key box and that it is aligned level to
the body in cross section.

Dont glue to the body yet. I

need to make the key box first.
The body is basically finished
and now awaits the soundboard,
piezo electrics and coax cable
to be installed.

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PEGHEDS
These are the peghed pegs I bought from John Charles (Chuck) Herin
<[email protected]> They fit the look of this instrument well and work
wonderfully. They are fully geared machine heads.

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The Spindles
Turn up 2 identical spindles to go between the body end and the peg head. I used
30mm square stock 200mm long to turn one spindle.

Turning the Spindles

Drilling out the axle holes in the body end piece and sound board braces. Clamp
the brace being drilled and make sure the drill bit is aligned correctly while
drilling.
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Drilling the axle holes

The Wheel and Shaft

The wheel is made from a core of marine ply (5 ply hard wood) decorated with

Trimming the excess decorative wood

Showing the marine ply wheel core

Drilling the axle hole squared to the wheel face

Glueing the bent sassafrass rim the the turned

wheel

Showing the wheel and body sizes

The trimmed wheel ready for turning

Quarters of Huon Pine and Myrtle. The grains of the decorative woods are at
right angles to each other. This gives more stability to the wheel. The rim is
made from Tas Sassafrass (fine grain and takes rosin well).
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Wheel Shaft details
Wheel Shaft turning sequence

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Wheel thread

End cap with bushing

apart

End cap and bushing

together (left two
shots). Brace bush and
thrust washer (right
two shots).

Shaft assembly

Shaft

These are the bushings and the wheel shaft. The shaft is made of Stainless
steel. The black bushings are delrin and the other parts are brass.

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The wheel and shaft installed. This photo shows the clearance of the bridge brace to the shaft.

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The new wheel

I had to make up a new wheel because I drilled and installed the wheel thread
after turning the wheel up. This meant that the wheel wasnt exactly
perpendicular to the shaft. So the wheel was not running true on the shaft.
Turning up the wheel on the shaft is the preferable way to go. The following
was the fabrication sequence of the new wheel.
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Once the wheel is turned up true to the shaft, I then installed the sassafrass
rim as show with the first wheel.
The Sound board
I bought a 7.5 super-foot
block of quarter sawn Huon
pine for the soundboard. I
cut 2 10mm slabs off the
block to use. These were
book-matched and the joint
planed true on the shooting
board.
I then glued the two slabs
together and thicknessed the
soundboard down to 2.5mm.
The roses were marked out
and the pattern glued to the
underside of the soundboard
ready for drilling and cutting.
I then chip carved the top
of the roses.

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From left to right: the drilled and cut sound holes. Starting to chip carve the
rose. more detail added.
There are 2 identical roses evenly spaced from the sound board center line.
The roses are then re-inforced by glueing small sticks of myrtle to their
underside. The following photos show the placement of these re-enforcement
sticks and under soundboard Piezo pickup positioning.
The soundboard was then glued to the body with PVA glue. This needed carful
bending of the soundboard as to not crack it.

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The chanter string lifting mechanism prototype

Make up a prototype of the lifter mechanism to see if it is feasible.
Green depicts the
strings in the on
wheel position.
While Red depicts
the strings in the
off wheel
position.

The prototype
works well. I have
discovered that the slots in the key sliders that lock the string lifters in the

UP position, work best facing up. i.e.. you push the buttons in and up to lift
the string of the wheel. I had designed it to go the other way, but that kept
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slipping due to the configuration of the pivot point and the pressure at the
string lifter.

String lifter pivots

Showing the mock up of the Chanter string lifters

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Return springs in HOME position.
Both strings are ON the wheel

Left hand return spring in the engaged

position. So that string is lifted OFF
the wheel

Return springs in engaged position.

Both strings are Off the wheel

Return Spring viewed from underneath

Showing the return springs in action

The bass string lifters are more

straight forward. I have turned their
slider slots to face up so they lock
more efficiently. That way all the
four buttons for the string lifters
will work in the same fashion to
engage and disengage the strings from
the wheel.

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The KeyBox
The key box is made up of
3 parts. The top and
bottom parts have key
slots routed in them
using the key slot jig.
They are then glued
together with a separation
piece of contracting wood.
Key slot cutting jig is
made such that it will
position the slots in the
correct key pattern for
the top and bottom key
box sides.
Showing the key slot cutting sequence
The huon side block is
screwed into the recess
of the alignment jig. There
are slots in the alignment
jig which run on a pin in
the router table jig
attachment. This keeps
the routed slots parallel
to each other. The top
and bottom key-box sides
are then glued together
with the separation strip
of wood. Then ripped
down on the bandsaw to
form the completed keybox side. This produces
many key-box side from
one routed block.

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Here is the workings of the chanter string lifters. Showing the button sliders,
the wedge levers and return springs. The buttons are conveniently located for the
left hand thumb to operate during playing.
The notch cut out of the button slider
locks into the side of the key box and

holds the string off the wheel. The push

rods are smooth on top so as not to abrade the strings when lifting up the
strings. The have a slightly domed top. The brass part of the push rod is
adjusted by means of the brass lock nut.
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The brass lock nut can be
tightened using the flats provided.
The push rod itself is steel and
has a rounded end to help it climb
the wedge as the wedge is forced
under the rod by the wedge lever
and button slider.

The buttons from right to left are: high chanter, low chanter, bass drone and
tenor drone. The alto drone and trompette string lifter is in the foreground.
These two need to be lifted by hand up onto their hooks.

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Tenor and Bass drone String lifters

Pressing the buttons in to their locked position disengages the drone strings
from the wheel. The position of these buttons in conveniently reached by the
left hand thumb. Even while playing.

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The Bridges
Adjustable Trompette and Alto drone bridges
The drone strings run on bridge bolts in the slot near the head of the bolt.

These bolts thread into the wooden bridge base and can be adjusted in or out
to give more or less string to wheel pressure. There are 3 needed. One for each
drone. The trompette gets the following adjustable arrangement.

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The finished Hurdy Gurdy

The finished hurdy gurdy

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I then made a case. I will add the info soon in a update

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Electronics Still under optimisation
I will update the preamp info when I have optimised it
Onboard JFET
Preamp

Thanks to Albert Kreuzer http://www.albertkreuzer.com/index.htm for the

circuit design.
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I have sourced piezo strip from Experimental Musical Instruments https://
windworld.com/ and intend installing a 6 strip under the soundboard parallel to
the wheel on the bridge side. While attaching a 1 strip to the chanter bridge. Ill
run coax prior to installing the soundboard and then temporarily try for the
sweet spot on top of the strung instrument. I can then remover the wheel and
instal the strip in the sweet spot under the sound board permanently. I will
build the preamp into the peg head end of the key box, under the keys. The
volume and tone pots will protrude through the trompette side wall of the key
box for easy but discrete access.

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