When you order from us, you are ordering directly from the luthiers. There is no middle-man to drive up costs.
Another factor: we are professional, full time Hurdy Gurdy luthiers. Over the years, our shop has become very specifically tooled to make hurdy gurdies. We have jigs for all the various parts, enabling us to get our work done much more quickly and with repeatable accuracy. Obviously some things can't be done in a production mode. Things like tap toning a soundboard, or making & setting up the 'dog' must be done one at a time with the utmost attention to detail. But then Items like the headstock or keyshafts can be made in production, without sacrificing tone or beauty |
State of the Art Technology
For those items that CAN be batch cut, we use the most current, up to date tools available. This includes a Cnc machine (which we affectionately refer to as 'Big Johnson') and laser engravers. These tools are controlled by computers and can repeatedly cut wood & metal precisely to tolerances impossible to achieve otherwise. They save considerable man hours over making the many small parts by hand. These are the same tools you find in high end production guitar shops (like Gibson, etc), finally being utilized to benefit the hurdy gurdy world. Pictured: Big Johnson cutting out metal tangents |