Posted on June 6, 2024May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips

Questions: Kit Fiddle Drawings

Questions: Kit Fiddle Drawings

by Robert Hickey

Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007

■ Robert Hickey of Liberty, North Carolina asks:

Last weekend I learned about “kit fiddles” (also called dancing master’s violins) while visiting the historical area at Williamsburg, Virginia. Where could I obtain detailed drawings of the instrument?

Robert Hickey answers his own question:

Thanks for passing on the info from Darcy Kuronen at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, pointing to the kit violin at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Michael Latcham, Curator of Musical Instruments there, mentioned the oddity of this instrument and also that the instrument has no sides, and they are not even sure if it was ever a viable instrument. But he did refer to luthier Claude Lebet in Rome (www.claudelebet.com), who examined their instrument and has information on other such instruments. He has written a book on the subject, La Pochette du Maître à Danser, which includes text in both French and English. It is a history of kit violins from the 1400s to the present with a wealth of photos of instruments held in museums mostly in Europe, but a dearth of drawings from which an instrument could be constructed. These instruments were made in a variety of sizes and styles to no particular standard other than the ability to fit into a coat pocket of the time. This lack of standardization may well be the reason that there are few if any plans available. It seems that the builder is free to do whatever works. I wonder if there was any bracing inside. These instruments were much more than curios for several hundred years. The era’s greatest luthiers made many of them, including Stradivari. Too bad they fell from favor. ◆

Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips

Questions: 15 String Lap Harp Plans

Questions: 15 String Lap Harp Plans

by Art Robb

Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009

Shirley Ward from the Internet asks:

I am looking for blueprint plans for a regular triangular shaped 15-string lap harp, also referred to as a plucked psaltery. But not the hognose style.

Art Robb from Wiltshire, England responds:

The word psaltery covers a range of instruments. The plucked psaltery comes in many shapes, but I have not seen a triangular one. Trapezoids are the shape used most often these days although old paintings and sculpture more often shows the hognose shape. The tuning is usually diatonic. Plucked psalteries are very old, arriving in the west sometime after 1000AD, and they are ancestors of the hammered dulcimer, the harpsichord, and, eventually, the piano.

The bowed psaltery is relatively modern. I can find no reference for them before 1890 and certainly no medieval references. It appears to have been invented for school use, and although it looks old, it simply is not. They are usually triangular, as this allows access to the strings with a bow. The tuning is chromatic with a scale on one side and the accidentals on the other. Fancy players will use two or more bows.

I used to teach musical instrument making evening classes and developed a range of plans for the students. One plan for both a plucked psaltery and a bowed psaltery can be purchased from my website at www.art-robb.co.uk. ◆

Posted on March 7, 2024June 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips

Hardanger Fiddle

Hardanger Fiddle

by E.M. Peters

Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986

The Hardanger fiddle differs from the conventional violin in several respects. Most apparent is the fact that it has eight strings. It has four strings which are bowed in the usual manner, and in addition it has four strings on a lower level, running under the fretboard. These lower four, sympathetic strings resound to the vibration of the four upper strings when these are stroked with the bow.

There are other differences between the Hardanger fiddle and the common fiddle, too. The bridge and the fingerboard are flatter, making it easier to stroke two strings at the same time. Much of the time they are stroked two at a time, one open and one stopped. The usual fiddle is tuned one way (E, A, D, G), but the Hardanger fiddle, in the hands of an expert, may be tuned in over twenty ways.

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Posted on March 7, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips

The Santur

The Santur

by Javád Náini

Originally published in American Lutherie #92, 2007

Also see,
Introducing Santur by Javád Náini

The santur is a traditional Persian dulcimer which is played with two light wooden hammers. Its isosceles trapezoidal shape, tuning plan, and playing methods are similar to the American hammered dulcimer and East Indian santoor. Origins of the santur trace back to ancient Persians in the Middle East, India, and perhaps ancient China. Modern santur design, however, is most likely no more than two centuries old. In this article, we focus on the design that is most popular in contemporary Iran or Persia.

The santur provides over three octaves of musical notes (e–f ´´´ or ≈164Hz–1396Hz), with eighteen unison courses of four strings. The strings in each course share the same chessman-style bridge. There are two columns of nine bridges; bass courses are on the right, treble courses on the left. Treble bridges divide each course into a higher and middle octave. This provides two consecutive octaves of notes, with one additional overlap note. The strings running to the right side of the bass bridge are not played.

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Posted on March 6, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips

Building the Kamanché

Building the Kamanché

by Nasser Shirazi

Originally published in American Lutherie #4, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000

The word kamanché in the Persian language (Farsi) means “small bow.” This instrument, with varying shape, size, and material, is widely used in Middle Eastern countries. The kamanché described in this article is modeled after the Persian (Iranian) instrument.

The kamanché is a very old instrument and possibly dates back as much as 1500–2000 years, being another form of the ancient Indian ravanstron. In 1418 A.D. Ben Abd-ul-Cadir wrote a treatise (the manuscript of which is in the University of Leyden) which shows that its existence today has changed little since that time.

A 16th-century Iranian miniature painting in the Khamza of the poet Nizami shows a kamanché very similar to the one described below. Various early European travelers to Iran have described it also. Among these are Sir W. Ouseley in 1819,¹ and Sir Percy M. Sykes.² Sykes describes a kamanché in Khorasan, an eastern province of Iran, as follows: “...made of walnut wood. The total length is 37", with fingerboard 9" in length. The instrument is handled like a violoncello; but in shape resembles a mandolin with a long spike of worked iron. The belly is constructed from a pumpkin covered with parchment and mounted with stripes of bone radiating from a turquoise. The neck is pierced on each side with three holes, and with a hollow at the back, 3" in length; there are three wire strings and six pegs, three of which are dummies. The bow resembles our double-bass bows and is 22" in length; it is made of gypchin wood and has a strap and a loop with which to tighten the horsehair. To complete the equipment, a bit of beeswax is tied on to serve as rosin.”