RESONERA MERA!

Svenska fioler med resonanssträngar

August Fredin, a well known expert on folk music from Gotland wrote the following about the violins of the fiddle playing brothers in Grodda: "To strengthen the sound they had so called understrings of metal inside the violin". There is also an article from 1953 about these brothers by a Ture Carlsson. He writes that "Lars usually played the melody on violin, Anders played clarinett and Jaken played second voice on his so called hardanger fiddle. That was a standard violin on which an extra pegbox was attached and equipped with four strings underneath the fingerboard which made the sound richer. The father, "Grodd-Ole" played second voice on violin or hurdy-gurdy".

I do not have more information than this but it would be interesting to know if there is a connection to the two supposed double-deckers with 6 sympathetic strings found on Gotland. Carlsson states that they had 4 sympathetic strings so it is most likely not the same instrument.

NameGroddafiolerna
TypeReference
Luthier
Year
Origin
Found inGrodda, Gotland
Playing strings
Sympathetic strings

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