Your gurdy has a good sound,I found one in a charity shop,got it repaired,and its great,a small box symphony,1 melody 2 drones,and I added 6 sympathetic strings it's diatonic but you can turn the tangents to sharp or flat's, for more versatility,repaired by neil brook. Hurdy gurdys each have a different voice ,sometimes you can pay a lot of money for an instrument ,and although well made you might not like the sound,each instrument has its own distinct voice ,that's the thing with them,no two gurdys really sound the same, even quality made,its not just a matter of does it work properly or does the finish look nice ,more Importantly do you like its voice,although you can by changing strings and tuneing,influence the voice somewhat to your taste as you did,you cannot really change the overall sound character of a hurdy as its built in to the design,materials,etc..I think you paid a lot for your second hand symphony but it sounds good and you could certainly pay more for a new one,that does not sound so good ,eg vrabel ,swings and roundabouts ,with gurdys,ideally it would be great if you could just walk into a music shop and try say a dozen different gurdys out new ,or second hand and make a choice on sound comparison.
My current HG was also 2nd hand: a Gotschy "Phoenix Da Vinci", for which I paid about $1500 US. I have since fitted it with metal tangents, and changed it to octave tuning, and find no fault with it.
