Hurdy-gurdy twenty-three different forms, and there is still no standardized design today. The six-stringed French "vielle à roue" is the best known and most common sort. A number of regional forms developed, but outside France the instrument was considered a folk instrument and there were no schools of construction that could have determined a standard form. There are two primary body styles for contemporary instruments: guitar-bodied and lute-backed. Both forms are found in French-speaking areas, while guitar-bodied instruments are the general form elsewhere. The box form of the "simphonia" is also commonly found among players of early music and historical re-enactors.
Nigel Eaton Nigel Eaton Nigel Eaton is an English hurdy-gurdy player. He originally played the piano and cello but switched to the hurdy-gurdy in 1981 when his father, Christopher Eaton, began making them. He was a member of Whirling Pope Joan with Julie Murphy, Blowzabella, The Duellists and Firestarters of Leiden. He has released two solo albums, "The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy" (1987) and "Pandemonium" (2002), and has been featured on recordings by other artists including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (with whom he toured between end of 1994 and early 1996), Scott Walker, Shelleyan Orphan, Heidi Berry, Gary Kemp, Carl Davis