RESONERA MERA!

Svenska fioler med resonanssträngar

Other swedish understringed fiddles

There are surprisingly few preserved violins with sympathetic strings in Sweden which are not double-deckers. I believe most people would guess that violins with 2-4 sympathetic strings where the pegbox has been extended horisontally would be the most common type but that is not the case. Some of the double-deckers have been converted to standard violins but since they all have 6 or 8 pins for attachment of sympathetic strings next to the end pin I assume they are all double-deckers. No violin with more than 4 sympathetic strings and a single-planed pegbox has been found and thus it is closer at hand to assume that there have been no such instrument. So why are there so few Swedish violins with sympathetic strings that are not double-deckers? Either it is because they were not common, or else they might not have been preserved to the same extent as the double-deckers. The later might be the case if the sympathetic strings where attached to the tailpiece rather than to pins next to the end pin. No evidence will then remain if the instrument is converted to a standard violin.

Copyright 2009-2020 Jon Magnusson