With a string length of 38.5cm and a body length of 41cm this larger Viola d’amore really gets the most from the lower strings.
The flat back and sides are made from an incredible piece of ancient Yew which came down in a storm, the hardness of which suits the timbre of a Viola d’amore by giving brightness and sweetness to the overall sound. The ribs are shaped to be deepest in the C’s and getting shallower towards the upper and lower blocks, making the instrument easy to hold whilst maintaining a decent internal air volume.
Spruce carved front, veneered ebony fingerboard and tailpiece on a spruce core.
The head and neck are carved from pear wood and I took the design of the head from one I saw on a wardrobe in the ‘Uhrenmuseum’ (clock museum) Vienna. I then gilded the head and coloured it with oil paints.
This instrument has mid-18thCentury setup suitable for a wide Viola d’amore repertoire.
4 plain gut and 3 silver wound strings / twisted brass and iron sympathetics made in-house.
The pegs are made from ebony and the sympathetic string pegs contain carbon fibre shanks to make tuning easier!
