This is a Shetland Gue; a two stringed lyre and relative of the Scandinavian Jouhikko. I came across the instrument on the web and decided to build one. Information was scarce to non existent and I ended up scaling from the few photos that existed. No dimensions were published so I estimated the size and took inches as my basis as all the ancient Norse countries used the inch (thumma) and foot. Thus I settled on 2 feet for the length. Some Jouhikko information was used as a guide.The frame is of eucalyptus as I have a good stock of this. Should have been something more Viking! There are now no trees on Shetland, so no clue there! Soundboard is authentic spruce. I cheated with the tuning pegs and used two old violin ones. Strings are 25 strands of Mongolian black horsehair and I’ve tuned them to D and G. I’ve yet to make a rowan bow and am using a violin one for testing.
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Interesting. I'll add that to the list of things to build. Especially since my ancestors came through there (Norway to Shetland/Orkneys to Scotland and so on.) I bet the extra bow I have for my bowed psaltery would work until I could make a bow.
"Nice", just built one very similar to yours, (AGP #288) with all the same problems regarding scales etc., also like yourself using a (new) Violin Bow, which I'm having trouble getting the Resin on at the moment, originally had it strung with nylon strings with no success, but have just received some Violin strings which haven't fitted as yet.
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Interesting. I'll add that to the list of things to build. Especially since my ancestors came through there (Norway to Shetland/Orkneys to Scotland and so on.) I bet the extra bow I have for my bowed psaltery would work until I could make a bow.
Excellent. I bet it sounds great.
"Nice", just built one very similar to yours, (AGP #288) with all the same problems regarding scales etc., also like yourself using a (new) Violin Bow, which I'm having trouble getting the Resin on at the moment, originally had it strung with nylon strings with no success, but have just received some Violin strings which haven't fitted as yet.