Vintage instrument with two rows of strings?

SimSportPlyr

New member
At a museum today, I saw a vintage instrument roughly like a violin that had two rows of strings (I hope I'm describing it fairly clearly).

One row looked 'normal', but the 2nd row of strings was under the first row, and very, very close to the wood of the instrument.

I could not imagine how the 2nd row of strings could be used, since it was not accessible, being between the 1st row and the main body of the instrument.

Any ideas about the function of the 2nd row of strings?

Thanks.
 
Corno Dolce

Corno Dolce

Admiral Honkenwheezenpooferspieler
The second row of strings are not played but they "Sympathetically Vibrate" due to their proximity to the "played strings" - They give the instrument a sweet sound - If my memory serves me, "filling the sound with more overtones"...
 
teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
Hello and welcome to the forum

The only thing I can think of is that they resonate with the playing. A photo would help if you can supply one

teddy
 

SimSportPlyr

New member
Corno Dolce and Teddy, thank you very much for the helpful replies! I very much appreciate it.

I don't have a photo of the instrument I saw and I don't remember the name of it (I should have taken notes), but using the terms you gave me in your responses I was able to find a photo of an apparently modern 'two row' instrument:

http://www.beyondthetrees.com/harpeggione detail tailpiece,bridge.JPG

although the 'unplucked row' of the instrument I saw was much longer than shown in the photo, above.

Apparently ,the 'unplucked' strings are also referred to as 'drone strings' these days (oops, maybe that's wrong; this web page distinguished between 'sympathetic' and 'drone': http://www.bazantar.com/instrument.html).

I'll google for an audio example of a modern drone instrument.
 

SimSportPlyr

New member
I hope I'm allowed topic drift here....

Another interesting aspect of these vintage instruments was the widely differing number of strings.

While I realize that a sitar has many strings, it seems that most western stringed instruments have standardized on four or six strings (or, five, for some banjos).

I'm curious about the reduction in the number of strings over time. Perhaps a wide fret made it challenging to play quickly?
 
musicteach

musicteach

New member
Corno Dolce said:
The second row of strings are not played but they "Sympathetically Vibrate" due to their proximity to the "played strings" - They give the instrument a sweet sound - If my memory serves me, "filling the sound with more overtones"...
Click to expand...

This is correct, or at least partially. It's essentially the strings version of what brass players can do, which is to hum one note while actually playing another. It creates the harmonical series on the instrument.

SimSportPlyr said:
I hope I'm allowed topic drift here....

Another interesting aspect of these vintage instruments was the widely differing number of strings.

While I realize that a sitar has many strings, it seems that most western stringed instruments have standardized on four or six strings (or, five, for some banjos).

I'm curious about the reduction in the number of strings over time. Perhaps a wide fret made it challenging to play quickly?
Click to expand...

I believe it's at least partically related to how the instrument actually works. You have a tremendous range on all of the strings of the instrument. So much that it's really not needed to have 6, 7 or more strings, as you can play the same notes on the remaining strings. Take double bass, for instance. Sometimes, a fifth string is added which is a C string, which is concert C. This same C is produced in the 3rd position, 1st finger on the G string. On any instrument of the violin family, the first finger in 3rd position is ALWAYS the next string up.
 
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