Franken-fele, or Hardanger fiddle conversion

Posted by Diane in Chicago on September 19, 2011 at 3:34pm

First off, Dennis Havlena is my hero. Here's his page on instruments he's altered/made/unmade. One of them is a hardanger conversion from a beater fiddle:

http://dennishavlena.com/

Here are blogs from two builders who've documented their process for us all:

http://feedbacksolo.wordpress.com/

http://www.fiddlehangout.com/archive/979

I've just purchased a raw fiddle and have removed the fingerboard to make a channel for the sympathetic strings to run through. I'll post photos as I go along -- not much to see yet!

Likely I'll stain it green!

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Email me when people reply –

Replies

Diane in Chicago October 24, 2011 at 4:18pm

And all done. Tuning for overstrings: ADae. Tuning for understrings: adef#. Bow it just like a regular fiddle.

Notice the second set of holes in the bridge for the understrings. Ooops. First ones were too low.
- Bernie Stocks > Diane in Chicago February 20, 2012 at 10:11am
  
  Thanks for the pics. A very useful reference for my own attempt at this sort of thing:
  
  http://ecotonalinstruments.blogspot.com/2011/11/hardanger-project.html
  
  Bernie
- Diane in Chicago > Bernie Stocks February 20, 2012 at 11:44am
  
  Well done! Really enjoyed your fiddle tune at the end there. That's a new one for me!
Diane in Chicago October 3, 2011 at 8:14am
Diane in Chicago September 22, 2011 at 7:14pm
Diane in Chicago September 20, 2011 at 8:36am

Do you still have that fiddle? Give it another go. Bowing takes a few weeks to get smooth enough to enjoy, but after that fiddling is really fun. Also, if you are playing G tunes, it is okay if you kiss the low G string by accident, it just drones along. The E string, not so much!

If you are playing a violin set up as a "fiddle" often the bridge is really flat so you CAN play those drones. Those are too flat for me, I have more of a classical arch on the bridge so I can hit the strings more cleanly.

Some people tune their fiddles AEae or GDgd so they can hit any string any time and it sounds great. Or D'DAd. Maybe it will be more fun if you play in those tunings to start.
Uncle John September 20, 2011 at 8:12am

Well, the reasons I asked about using just the two middle strings are these: I gave up on trying fiddle a couple of years ago after just a week or two. It seemed like the bowing part would take me a long time to get~and I was starting at age 60. I play mandolin some (same strings as fiddle) and I can pick a lot of songs in G on just those two middle strings. I kind of wonder if I could make and rig a fiddle to make it easy to bow with 2 strings. ~~~ Maybe not worth it...
Diane in Chicago September 19, 2011 at 11:16pm

You'd be pretty limited to the tunes you could play in 1st position. If you are comfortable with shifting into higher positions, you can get a bit more out of it. But add one more strings and you're much more versatile.

The middle two strings are the D and the A. That means you're mostly playing in D. Almost all the D fiddle tunes I know go up to the E string. So I'd guess lots of other songs do, too, when played in D.
Uncle John September 19, 2011 at 8:41pm

Dennis Havlena does have a great site and lots of super home mades. I like the hang drums.

Can anyone tell me how playable a 2 string fiddle would be? The 2 center strings.