Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy. The world's first mechanical musical model

The Hurdy-Gurdy by Ugears: Wooden 3D puzzle and Musical Instrument

Inspired by the art of Celtic and Scandinavian medieval craftsmen, as translated through intelligent 21st century engineering, Ugears is proud to introduce the Hurdy-Gurdy—the world’s first (as far as we know!) mechanical model for self-assembly that is also a musical instrument. This extraordinary mechanical model kit is truly one of the gems of our catalogue. This isn't just a toy, it's a full-fledged musical instrument that you build yourself. The Hurdy-Gurdy has a sound that's perfect for folk melodies or dancing, bringing medieval times into the present day. When you purchase the Hurdy-Gurdy you will experience a unique combination: the fun and challenge of building, the appreciation of outstanding engineering and design, and the joy of music. Feel like a modern-day Stradivari as you show your friends an instrument you created with your own hands, then start practicing so you can play popular tunes on your Hurdy-Gurdy!

About the Hurdy-Gurdy: History

The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces a sound resembling a bagpipe. The sound is produced by a hand-turned wheel rubbing against the strings, similar to a violin being bowed. The instrument's history begins in Medieval Europe in the 15th century with the organistrum (a portable organ). After some modification it became a common instrument among travelling musicians in England. The hurdy-gurdy experienced a renaissance of popularity in the later 17th-18th centuries among the noble and monied classes, with intricate inlays and decorative carving by craftsmen. Often the hurdy-gurdy mechanism would be built into a guitar or lute body. Some have referred to Hurdy-Gurdy music as "medieval rock ’n’ roll," which we think is pretty cool. At Ugears our tagline is "old-school and oh-so-cool" so how could we resist creating a Ugears version of the hurdy-gurdy?

The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy

Based on the 15th century organistrum, the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy is an intricately-detailed, fully-functional mechanical version of this medieval instrument. The finished model looks remarkably akin to the original hurdy-gurdys, with a wonderfully medieval aesthetic. Our wooden 3D model has an attractive and highly detailed body, crafted in the romantic style. The fun starts with the assembly—the excitement of watching your very own musical instrument come to life—then tuning, followed by hours of pleasure as you learn to play an instrument built by your own hands.

Engineering and Design

The design of the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy is based on medieval prototypes, including body, front and back decks, gears, crank (handle), wheel, neck, tuning pegs or hitch-pins, strings and tangent box, which together form a single beautiful instrument. The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy’s tuning pegs have a gear reduction mechanism for finer sound tuning of the melody and bourdon strings. This self-assembled mechanical musical model is super easy to play, creating sound as the hand-turned wheel rubs against the melody and bourdon strings.

For a more clear sound you can switch off the bourdon string, using a little lever in the keybox. We also added a gear reduction mechanism into the crank (handle) to increase the wheel's number of rotations. This allowed us to get a smoother and richer sound, while preserving the model's compact size.

The instrument's six keys are spring-loaded with rubber bands and little cranks in the keybox to ensure softer and more convenient play. The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy also features a special mechanism to adjust the height of both strings (melody and bourdon strings) on the bridge, and a beautiful planetary gear mechanism inside the body.

The length of the melody string and bourdon string is 250 mm from bridge to nut. The length of the strings between the middle of the wheel to the bridge is 30 mm.

Assembling your Hurdy-Gurdy

The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy comes with everything needed for assembly. All pieces are pre-cut into high-quality plywood boards, and are easily removed for assembly, following the detailed instructions provided. The only non-wooden parts are the two strings that rub against the crank-powered wheel, and the rosin used to wax it (included). Estimated assembly time for the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy is 4-5 hours (less time for experienced builders). The Hurdy-Gurdy assembles without glue or special tools.

Tuning your Hurdy-Gurdy

The model has a melody string for playing melodies and a bourdon string for the drone. There are six keys corresponding to six notes that can be played by pushing the key while rotating the crank. Fully releasing the keys provides an additional seventh note. The second (bourdon or drone) string is tuned in unison with the melody string or in any melodic interval (fourth, fifth, octave) desired. The construction kit includes pieces of rosin to wax the wheel and improve the sound.

Playing your Hurdy-Gurdy

The Hardy-Gurdy by Ugears is a full-fledged musical instrument. It’s great for playing folk tunes or dance melodies, from Elizabethan to modern. To start the music flowing, the player just needs to crank the handle with one hand to commence a drone sound from the bourdon and melody strings. Pressing the wooden keys with the fingers of the other hand changes the pitch of the melody string. We've even included some sheet music with the kit to get newbies off to a flying start! The instruction manual and a dedicated Hurdy-Gurdy landing page on Ugears website (ugearsmodels.com) includes sheet music (tablatures), tips for assembling, tuning and playing, and even basic musical lessons to get you started playing your Hurdy-Gurdy.

The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy is an amazing combination of model-building, engineering and musical magic. Anyone from beginner to professional musician will get a kick out of playing an instrument they built themself. Whatever music you like—whether folk or modern— we invite you to experience the thrill of playing it on your new, unique, Hurdy-Gurdy from Ugears.

Hurdy-Gurdy Model

Model Size: 15.7*6.5*8.7 in (40*16.5*22 cm)

Package size: 14.9*6.7*2 in (37.8*17*5 cm)

Number of components: 292
Level: Medium

ELA

11/01/2023

Посылку получили очень быстро.ребенок в восторге от сборки и от самого инструмента.это просто механическое чудо.большое спасибо за вашу продукцию.10 звезд.

Gosia

28/12/2022

The model is really awesome looking, especially when painted. I have a blast with assembling it.

The 4 stars are for the sound of it. I find the video tutorial about tuning lacking - how to apply rosin? How much should I sand the wheel? What to do if the wheel does not rotate properly (in an axis) even though the pieces were tightly fit together (I fought with that wobble for 2hours and couldn’t fix it). What to do if the strings do not touch the wheel for the whole 360° which can be tested only after assembling it whole? Why my bouxyz string is not sounding properly? Etc etc. I was fighting with all of that for 3h and got one string working, barely

Administrator

Hi Gosia,
Thank you for your feedback.

Please contact our Customer Service Department at customerservice@ugearsmodels.com. They will get back to you within 48 hours with help in your question.

Best regards,
The Ugears Team

Diana

26/09/2021

I have just finished my Hurdy-Gurdy and I’m so excited to try to play some tunes now! I received this as a birthday present, I’d seen some of your products online and wanted one. When I was asked if I wanted something that would just sit there to look at, or something that “did something”, of course I wanted a moving model! I had not seen the Hurdy-Gurdy for sale, so I was very excited when I opened my gift.

I thought that it would be hard to follow the directions, as it is almost all in pictures, but the pictures are VERY well done! And I appreciated very much that there are several extra parts included. I did run out of wax, but I was probably just trying to make sure that parts would move as smoothly as possible. I found some beeswax to finish.
It took me much longer than the 5 hour estimate, but I went slowly on purpose, because it was so much fun, and I am very meticulous.
Thanks for such great fun!

Administrator

Hi Diana!
Thank you for sharing your experience!

Please feel free to share the images of your assembled models in the Ugears Fan Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ugearsfanclub

Thank you and warm regards,
The Ugears Team

C Young

23/02/2021

Have really enjoyed putting this together and hope that you included a lot of extra pieces that I didn't use or could find directions for use in the instruction manual. Please advise.

Luis González

13/01/2021

Thanks for your reply.
Best regards. Luis Gonzalez

Luis Gonzalez

12/01/2021

The hurdy-gurdy was a gift from Santa Claus and I really enjoyed the assembly and the magnificent final result. A great product. A technical question: how can I remove the head / keyboard for maintenance, for example to change the elastic of the keys? Thanks in advance. Luis

Administrator

Hi Luis Gonzalez,
Thank you for reaching Ugears!

Please follow the guideline for rubberbands replacement.
Two rubber bands are foreseen in a kit, for the use on the following pages:
• Page #23 stage 4:
Lift up part #91 on page #29, and replace the rubber band;
• Page #23 stage 1:
Turn the fingerboard around, and with the help of tweezers or pliers replace the rubber band, as shown on page #23 stages 1-3. If it is more convenient, remove part #89 and all six keys.

Some parts may be fractured during the process. In this case, make a list of parts and send it to us, so we could send them to successfully assemble all back.

Please address us if you'll need spare parts or technical assistance in the future, we're always glad to help!

Best Regards,
The Ugears Team

kelly

10/01/2021

This is a gift to me. I was astonished by how amazing it is - the design, the idea, the look, etc. I enjoy a lot when building up this instrument. Hope more people can see you.

Martin howard

09/01/2021

I have just finished the hurdy gurdy, it has been a joy to make, and looks wonderful, the quality is exellent and it works great, i did the goble model first to get used to things, that worked out great too, just make sure you wax things good and make sure the parts move when you do them, i ordered another model from a different company but the quality was no where near as good as ugears, and i just found out if you need spare parts you get them totally free including postage which is fantastic on ugears side, i am now on to the vtrain advanced and so far enjoying it

Boom

28/12/2020

I had never heard of a Hurdy-Gurdy nor UGears when I received this kit as a gift. I was instantly hooked.

The attention to detail is incredible. Not only is the finished piece functional, but there are many parts that exist for the sole purpose of making the Hurdy-Gurdy an exquisite piece of art. The finished piece is absolutely beautiful.

I really appreciate that UGears provided tablatures to help tinkerers like myself learn how to play the model instrument. The tablature is just one example of how UGears goes above and beyond in this kit. I really get the feeling that UGears is not just interested in making a functional instrument, but rather, also making something that looks like it belongs in a museum.

Easy 5 stars.

Michelle

27/12/2020

I had a great time putting the hurdy gurdy together. The hammer provided broke halfway through, and I ran out of wax around then, too.

As for the playing of it, I am impressed with the tone quality, especially after "cottoning" the strings. Would not have expected it to sound as good as it does. Unfortunately the top two notes in particular are WAY out of tune. In watching the videos of the tunes on this website I noticed those to notes are rarely if ever used. I'm hoping I can do some tweaking to improve the pitches.

Overall, a great product as long as you don't expect to make great music with it. Fun and interesting to build, beautiful to look at, and fun to 'fiddle' around with.

Steve

14/12/2020

Highly enjoyed assembling this kit. Thoroughly enjoy playing the beautiful little thing. I am genuinely considering buying a second one. Absolutely worth it.

Terry

11/09/2020

Received as a gift, spent 4.5 hours assembling, (some of that listening to professional hurdy-gurdyists on youtube to set the mood.)

The model is Decently difficult, with a variety of internal complexities and vibrant details that grab the attention during construction and afterwards.
(I won't lie, I keep looking over at this thing, all the little embellishments make me smile.)

The gear movement is incredibly smooth for wood once you've sanded and added wax where needed. (thought for sure that was going to run out, but there's still just a teeeeeny bit left.)

For what it is, the sound quality is not bad.
Yes, it's a lil squeaky, but careful tuning and rosining bring out a surprisingly pleasant, listenable quality.

Final score? 6 stars, because I found this thoroughly enjoyable. although the rating only allows me to put 5.

Administrator

Thank you so much! Happy you enjoyed assembling Hurdy Gurdy!

Alexander Katrycz

17/07/2020

Spent 3 exiting evenings to assemble the hurdy gurdy.

Very precise parts and excellent manual.

Everthing included you need to makr the little instrument playable.

Had a question at the end of the prohect: Very friendly and professional service.

Friend of mine plays a "big" hurdy. Is TOTALLY fascinated also how nice it plays.

Tons of nice little details making this kit to a true juwel in your collection.

Absolut recommendation and a must have for musicians and wood puzzle fans.

Alex

Administrator

Thank you Alexander!

Judy

13/06/2020

Enjoyed putting together my Hurdy-Gurdy, it took me longer than some of the other reviewers but this was my first experience with something like this. I obviously need to sand my wheel better as the string broke during tuning the second day. What is the weight of the fishing line?

Administrator

Hi Judy,

Thank you for sharing your experience! The Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy kit includes the strings with the following specifications = Fishing Line / Scaffold - fluorocarbon fiber fishing line with a diameter of 0.6 mm and a tension force of 34 kg.
We have tested different kinds of strings (including classical nylon guitar strings with normal tension) and our recommendation is to use flurocarbon fiber fishing line with a diameter of 0.6 mm and a tension force of 34 kg.

Kind regards,
Ugears Team

Mykola

03/05/2020

I did assembly in one go and interrupted only for taking a meal... so I excited I was to see my ''lira'' playing. And it does, and very nicely!

Administrator

Thank you Mykola for sharing your experience. It's pleasure for us that you enjoyed your Hurdy-Gurdy!

Peter Read

17/04/2020

Fantastic model. Not only was it great to assemble, but it looks great on display. Wonderful!

Bob Ghiorzi

01/04/2020

It really was pleasure to assemble. I took my time and completed it in three sittings. I tuned it a P4th (A 415 - 440) lower than the suggested "D," which; I think, gives it a richer timbre. If you can, please tell me the strength or weight of the "fishing-line" provided so that I have some on hand, should a string break. Thank You, Bob Ghiorzi (Ceriana, Italy)

Andy Whysall

30/12/2019

Amazing kit. I took a long time over the construction, and decided to paint it as I went long too, so in the end it took about 20 hours (yeah) over two days. Luckily I used quick drying acrylic paints, otherwise I'd still be doing it at Easter. The whole kit is a masterpiece of design. It goes together almost like Lego. Just shows the power of smart design and precision laser cutting. I've wanted a hurdy gurdy for years, and £70 is better than £3k. Having said that I think I feel a slippery slope under my feet.

Administrator

Dear Andy,

our congratulations on the Hurdy-Gurdy! Please find a link to a dedicated section on our website where you can find tips for tuning, tablatures for playing the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy, etc
https://ugearsmodels.com/hurdy-gurdy/

Wishing you a Happy and Joyous Year 2020!

Kind regards,
Ugears Team

Kazimír Bodnár

26/12/2019

Awesome model! I built this in one go, even though I am 13. It is detailed, intricate, and sounds great. I broke a few of the pieces accidentally, but it still works completely fine! Again, a great model!

Administrator

Hi Kazimír,
thank you for your kind words! Congratulations from Ugears team! We wish you a lot of success in 2020!

Steve

26/12/2019

My son and I had a great time putting this together today. I rate it 4 stars. but given what is, I don't know realistically how it could be improved. A wider range of notes would be nice; better sound quality would be nice, but it's a laser-cut fit-together plywood relatively expensive kit! It's for fun, not to play serious renaissance music on. And it is definitely fun. Like any hurdy-gurdy, it does an excellent job of annoying adults and terrorizing small children.

Administrator

Dear Steve,

thank you for your feedback. The Hurdy-Gurdy is 2-in 1: the mechanical model for self-assembly and musical instrument.
Please find the link to a dedicated section on our website where you will find tips for tuning and various tablatures for playing the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy https://ugearsmodels.com/hurdy-gurdy/.

Wishing you Happy New Year 2020!

Kind regards,

Ugears Team

Michael McKinley

14/07/2019

WOW! I put this together in one go ... one several-hour go. I was enjoying it so much I never really found a good place to stop, and really did not want to. As said by others it is easy but in a challenging way.

The model could be done by a teenaged individual, with some supervision and IF they have patience. The parts fit together very tightly, they must for both sound quality (no rattling and vibration) and to be entirely glue-free, and if forced due to lack of patience can break.

The experience of putting it together is wonderful. I am in my 50s and love doing models of all kinds, watching this come together in my hands was pleasing, fascinating, fun, and educational. I was mesmerized by the working of the planetary gear assembly at the heart and could not believe something made from wood ran so smoothly. This set the tone (and expectations) for the fit of the rest of the parts, and I was NEVER disappointed! I will be doing more of the models from UGEARS in the future.

Administrator

Dear Michael ,

Сongratulation with sucessful project from Ugears engineering team!
Thanks a lot for your feedback and have a great day!

Ugears Team

Anne

31/03/2019

Easy build in a challenging way. Not many places where if you go wrong on something doesnt fit right its not a rite off. looks stunning on the shelf.

Administrator

Dear Anne,

thanks a lot. It's a glaring resemblance to the original 16th century Hurdy-Gurdy

Matteo Testa

18/12/2018

Bellissimo o ggetto da costruire e da esporre

Administrator

Hi Matteo,
thank your for your kind feedback. That's great, that you enjoyed assembling the Hurdy-Gurdy. Please have a look at our dedicated section with tablatures, tips for tuning: https://ugearsmodels.com/hurdy-gurdy/

Have a nice day,
Ugears Team

Matteo Testa

18/12/2018

Bellissimo oggetto da costruire e soprattutto da esporre

Administrator

Karsten

20/02/2018

Hello,

I still have a trick for the hurdy-gurdy: thinly wrap the strings on the wheel with cotton, which improves the friction and the sound.

The hurdy-gurdy not only looks great, playing it brings a lot of joy.

Warm greetings from Germany

Administrator

Hello Karsten,

thank you for youir feedback and we are glad to hear that you enjoy the Ugears Hurdy-Gurdy.

Feel free to contact us for any support: myugears@gmail.com

Warm wishes,
Ugears Team

Oscar Stern

11/02/2018

I'd like you to make more mechanical instruments so that it can totally teach kids & you can come up with a U Gears band

Administrator

Hi Oscar,

thank you for your feedback! A new mecahinical instrument is in the pipeline:)

Have a nice day,
Ugears team

Андрій

19/11/2017

Скибки видаляються тільки за допомогою наждачки, чи не обов'язково?

Administrator

Андрій, доброго дня, скибки, якщо вони є після видавлення деталі з дошки, краще відразу видалити за допомогою наждачки, що йде в комплекті.

Dmitry Scheglov

06/11/2017

Гарна модель для початківців. Дуже легко збирається.

Проте є один маленький нюанс:
-- Підчас монтажу "голови" (H) на "корпус" (D) моделі -- стор. 35, нижні "зуби" деталей 64 та 65 мають чітко стати у пази "верхньої перетинки колеса" (деталь 28)

Проте при встановленні ці пази знаходяться вже під верхньою декої і їх невидно. При цьому сама перетинка (деталь 28) може викривитися і збірка H все одно встановлюється із звуком "клац" (бо один зуб таки потрапляє у паз).

Викривлення перетинки порушує роботу механізму колеса (збільшується тертя та наватажуються всі вісі).

Демонтувати "голову" вже не має можливості.

Пропозиція:

1. Встановлення деталей 98 (скоба), що скріплюють верхню та нижні декі, -- стор. 17 -- перенести на самий кінец збирання, перед встановленням струн.

2. Забрати нижні зубці з деталей 64, 65.

Ці кроки залишать можливість демонтажу нижньої деки з метою правильного встановлення голови на корпус моделі.

Administrator

Дмитро, доброго дня,

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https://ugearsmodels.com/hurdy-gurdy/

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