I made Jiří (Czech George) between 2008 and 2010 fitting the design and construction in around family life trying not to get too obsessed with it (with limited success). I am quite pleased with the result. Jiří has that 19th century, European look, with all the modern hurdy gurdy playability.
The 4 chanters of low d, low g, violin d' and high g' give a great range in the musical key possibilities. I have been impressed with the sympathetic strings resonance. Having a full 12 sympathetic strings really gives a fullness. The 3 dogs are very worthwhile as they each have a particular characteristic to their pitch. Having capos and string lifters is a must with this setup. They let you use the most strings in many musical key setups. The Delacour sharping levers that I have chosen for the drone capos are very solid and easy to set up and use. As are the "Peghed" pegs for ease of use and the authentic older look.
In 2018 I created the "Virtue gurdy". This is a 3D CAD model of Jiří. I then reconstructed the keybox of Jiří, using the longer "Alto" string length. I have also added piezo pickups and onboard preamp system.
Feel free to download the Jiří plan and construct one yourself
Happy Building
JiriPLAN.pdfElectifying Jiří
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I have installed piezo pickups in Jiri. One in each of the bridges (three in all). This is mixed through an onboard preamp, giving the player good control over the sound balance and tone. The system is equiped with: master volume, treble tone, Bass tone, balance between Dogs and Bass drones and balance between chanters and bass drones/dogs.
string type/brand used for Jiří
As used with the original Jiří 360mm scale length as depicted in the 2D plans from 2008
Jiri final string selection 2010.jpgJiří Sound Samples
Jiri with chanters and dogs.m4aPlaying Jiří with g chanters and drones/dogs
Jiri in violin mode.m4aPlaying Jiří in g violin mode (no drones)
Jiri all chanters and dogs.m4aPlaying Jiří in g with all chanters, drones and dogs