Have you ever seen these? Essentially Violins for dummies

[charlie and algernon]

http://unicornstrings.com/

I saw them at the MD RennFaire over the weekend and nearly bought one, it's so cool. Each knob is a different note, sharps and flats are arranged like a piano on one side and the rest of the notes on the other side. It's essentially a violin keyboard and makes a beautiful sound. I would've bought one had I not already bought a Native American flute and you know, a new car. I may have to petition my parents to get me one for christmas.

[leeroysphitz]

1. I'm not familiar with that instrument.

[Crabby Appleton]

2. Here is a sample of what they sound like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZkKxMLkVX0

[frogmarch]

3. Hey! Who are you calling a dummy?

I have a bowed psaltery and love it!

I also play violin, cello, Celtic harp and few other instruments. The bowed psaltery is just as much fun to play as they are. (Mine is a tenor, not a soprano like the ones in the picture.)

[HillWilliam]

5. Speaking of odd instruments

ever heard of a chin-cello? I bought one a couple of years ago. That low-C will drain yer sinuses :D By and large, I'll stick to my fiddle.

[frogmarch]

6. No, I never have. I'll

google chin-cello and also check You Tube to see if there's a video showing one being played. Sounds interesting! Oh, wow, I'd love to hear the low C! :-)

[HillWilliam]

7. Think a soft-voiced cello

built on a 16" viola body, with a beefed-up box to support the octave strings. "Billy in the Lowground" is mighty low on it :) Woodwind and Brasswind is about the only outlet I know of for them. The developer hangs out on FiddleForum. PM me for details, so we don't TOTALLY hijack the thread (apologies to the OP!)

[charlie and algernon]

19. haha, certainly not you!

I definitely want to get one, I love both the violin and cello, but took the trumpet route instead. One of these days I'll learn how to play a string instrument. In the short time I played the psaltery at the faire I got a pretty good handle on it. It's pretty easy to master.

[HillWilliam]

4. Bowed Psalter

yup... I have plans for one, but haven't put it together yet. Pretty cool little thing. There's a fellow in Arkansas who makes them whom I met a couple of years ago at the craft fair in Greensboro. I'll scrounge around and see if I can find his card. They're not terribly expensive.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Yes, I saw them when I clicked on this thread earlier this morning.

[frogmarch]

9. I hope you get one. :-)

They're a lot of fun to play and not terribly difficult to get the hang of.

When I bought mine last summer, I bought a second bow so I could harmonize, using both bows at once. The second bow also comes in handy for playing the "black keys" side of the psaltery during fast tunes that aren't in the key of C.

[HillWilliam]

13. Did you make or order your bows?

I'm still thinking of building a psaltry. The plan I've got looks relatively simple, even for a non-builder like myself. Hairing a bow by hand isn't something I'd think to take on though the bows I saw at the craft show didn't look as complicated as a "normal" bow.

[frogmarch]

15. I bought them both.

My psaltery came with an archer-style bow, and I bought a conventional psaltery bow at an ebay store for $12. I like the archer bow the best. It has nylon strings, whereas the conventional bow has horsehair strings, but I think the reason I like the archer bow better is because it's easier for me to hold and maneuver for some reason.

[Petrushka]

10. Yep! I play one . . . handcrafted & made-to-order in the West Virginia mountains from . . .

. . . native black-walnut & wild-cherry woods and all gussied-up with mother-of-pearl.

Bowed psaltery, yessiree! Almost as easy to play as th' autoharp. If necessary, don't hesitate
to petition parents!

[frogmarch]

11. Sounds beautiful! Do you

have a picture of it to share? :-)

[Petrushka]

12. Sorry, no pics. But, it is beautiful! The crafter(s) had a display at the . . .

. . . Stonewall Jackson Jubilee, an annual event held at the Jackson
Mills 4-H Camp (the first 4-H camp in the nation, BTW). Can't remember
their names . . . but the wife was playing a psaltery, and the husband
was showing how their psalteries are constructed. Customers were permitted
to choose what wood(s) they wanted the crafter to use and I chose the
wild-cherrry & black-walnut because both trees (and others) grew on the
WV farm we owned. The day I ordered mine, there was a lon-n-ng waiting
list; but, lucky me: I received mine in time for Christmas! It was like
a Christmas present to myself.

Note:
Just checked online to see if I could find a photo showing a psaltery
similar to mine . . . and . . . unbelievable! I found a webpage where
there's an article about the folks who made my psaltery and, also, a
photo of a psaltery that looks exactly like mine --- hummingbird cutout
and all! Scroll down for a look-see:

http://www.culturalheritagetourism.org/assets/westVirginiaNewsletters/TamTims2.pdf

Edited to add:
Took a gander at the photo again. On closer inspection, I notice that
there are no mother-of-pearl inlaid circles to mark the octaves on that
particular psaltery. Maybe that was an option when I ordered mine. Can't
recall. My psaltery is at least 10 years old . . . and some days, I'm just
short o' bein' senile!

[frogmarch]

16. It's beautiful, and the hummingbird cutout is

exquisite. I'll bet yours, with the mother-of-pearl octave markers, is really stunning.

Thanks for the link. I'm going to read about the Jubilee now, especially about the people who made your psaltery. :-)

[charlie and algernon]

20. that's beautiful!

I'm going to need to shop around for one.

[qb]

14. It looks like a classy cousin to the beloved autoharp

I have my eye on one at the thrift shop across town!

[HillWilliam]

17. That's how I got hold of mine :)

all it needed was a tune and a couple of new pads. Under $200, with a gigbag, tuning key and all.

It's getting crowded in my office/studio with fiddles, a viola, an autoharp, a chin-cello, a load of pennywhistles, harmonicas and lord knows what's crawled off into corners and multiplied. But I've lusted after a bowed psaltry for a while.

[HillWilliam]

18. Oo, and did you see

the hammered dulcimers on the same site?

Got me window-shopping ye did...