UGears Mechanical Models 3-D Wooden Puzzle

Decided to order one of these after a YouTube video sparked an interest in the hurdy-gurdy but the price for a proper one almost killed it. Building this was a fine way to spend an evening, and in the end you get something that looks *very* cool and even approximates the sound of a real hurdy-gurdy for less than 1/10th the price. The model feels very sturdy (as in, you can leave it on your shelf and not worry about it). It was easy enough to build. This was my first Ugears kit and I really have to give props to the designers on this one. The instructions are crystal clear and the parts fit together perfectly as designed. I didn't find the included model hammer to be useful at all in building the h-g, but building it made for a good warm-up. My only difficulty came from stringing the instrument. Tying a knot in the tight spaces was a challenge but with some pliers to help out, I got it. I would recommend that Ugears includes an extra length of string in the box. I trimmed mine before tightening and the knot came undone. Luckily I had enough extra to just barely manage to get it back on. As for the sound, well, it sounded horrible when I first put it together. The strings need to go a lot tighter than you might think at first. When you pluck it, it should make a nice "TING!". Aim for 587 Hz (D5) on the melody string and 392 Hz (G4) on the drone string when rotating the wheel. The drone should be lower but you can't really get a good sound out of it much lower than that. I used the gStrings app to help tune. It's high pitched but that's because it's smaller than a real gurdy. After some tuning and lubing the gears a bit more (I used 3-in-one lock dry lube in addition to the provided wax which was applied while constructing) the instrument was easy to turn and sounded about as well as one can expect.