Fil-Am Vets Rondalla

What instrument is a mix between a violin and mini gramophone?

There’s 2 Romanian buskers in Belfast and their instrument always intrigues me. It is a stringed violin they play with a bow, however there’s a mini gramophone attached. It’s not a DIY instrument either. He couldn’t speak English so I didn’t really get the name. He (Possibly) said it was a Hungari.

Possibly this is a mechanically amplified instrument that was designed prior to electrical amplification.

In a similar way tp the National and Dobro instruments, a resonating cone was built into the instrument in order to increase the volume of the instrument so that street musicians (and others) could get their music noticed above the background noise of the towns and cities.

Several of the early instruments had a gramophone type horn in order to further project the sound.

2 Responses to “What instrument is a mix between a violin and mini gramophone?”

  1. fixed wheel yellowbelly says:

    Possibly this is a mechanically amplified instrument that was designed prior to electrical amplification.

    In a similar way tp the National and Dobro instruments, a resonating cone was built into the instrument in order to increase the volume of the instrument so that street musicians (and others) could get their music noticed above the background noise of the towns and cities.

    Several of the early instruments had a gramophone type horn in order to further project the sound.
    References :

  2. Professor Pornelius says:

    Such instrument is known as a Stroh Violin. Named after the instrument’s inventor Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh.
    References :
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroh_violin

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October 28th, 2009

Posted by admin in instrument | 2 Comments »

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