A bass Viola Da Gamba I made

[george wilson]

I made this bass gamba for a professional musician who has made a career from playing it. He is still playing it today,and it was made in the 70's,though I can't be sure exactly what year. He toured Europe playing this instrument,and is a Colonial Williamsburg based musician between concerts.This is a 17th.C. style instrument that was still played in the 18th.C. By style I mean the decorative features.

The owner wanted this viol to be made in the German style of 7 strings. At some later time,he had 1 hole plugged,and went to the usual 6 string style.

The members of this family have tied on gut frets,as did most guitars of the period. This was not because they did not have metal frets,but because they used a "mean tone" system of tuning back then. In mean tone tuning,the notes in certain keys were able to be played perfectly in tune. The frets could be shifted to play in tune in different keys. Today,we are used to hearing music played in a "tempered" scale. This came in in the 18th.C.,and was quite a novelty at the time. Composers began to write music such as "The well Tempered Clavier(keyboard)",in which the music would go into different keys,a novelty at the time.

The name viola means bowed instrument. gamba means it is held between the legs when played. Actually,it rests between the calves of the legs since it has no tail pin like a cello to rest upon the floor.

This viola is about the size of a cello. It is made,as most bowed instruments are,of spruce(German),for the top,and maple(German) for the back,sides and neck. The fingerboard is ebony veneered over a maple core,as is usual with this family of instruments,as opposed to the solid ebony fingerboards of the violin family. It is also bound with maple and has inlaid purflings.

The viol family usually has "C" shaped sound holes. These soundholes are outlined by black-white-black inlaid purfling.

The back and sides of this instrument have decorative "V" grooves freehand chiseled in to the curly maple(which can be a bit tricky due to the grain). The grooves stand out as the colored varnish builds up in them better than on the surface. I made the long lines smooth with a "V" groove riffler that I made especially for this task.

The owners initials are inlaid in 1/32" ebony lines. They are arranged in a 17th.C. style cypher that I made up,and reads RWM.

The spruce top is carved out into an arch. The back is flat,with a small amount of crowning made by the interior braces being planed to a slight arch.

The main feature of the instrument,as far as decoration is concerned,is the pierced and carved back of the peghead. It is hard to see in the picture,but among the pretty foliage On the left side,I have carved a snail being caught in the long,forked tongue of a lizard. On the right side is a bird being caught by a snake. You can see the snake has wrapped his "neck" around the neck of the bird,and is facing the bird's face,looking at his prey. The tails of both predators go all the way down the vines,curving opposite of them. I wish I had taken a closer view of the carving. The snail can be seen just beyond the juncture of the lowest tuning peg on the left. The lizard's head,with exaggerated,curled back "lips" can be seen near the juncture of the 2nd peg down on the left side. He has a large eye that can be made out when you find the curled lips. He lies right along the vine,with his tail snaking out behind him. His forked tongue begins to envelope the snail.

This type of work,showing the undertow,or dark side of the beauty of life is a theme that was sometimes used in the period. This dark side of life,or its fleeting enjoyment was referred to in song. "Gather ye rosebuds(women)while ye may,old time is yet a-flying,and rosebuds that are in bloom today tomorrow may be dyin'."(I hope this quote is accurate. It refers to the tenuous position of the followers of king Charles,who was beheaded. Some fled to South Carolina to Charlestown. My history,I admit,is hazy on this.

I plan to show the plane I made for hollowing out the top,and smoothing the outside edges. It is a simple "Krenov" type that I put together quickly. It is still in very good condition though it is cherry. But only planed spruce. I also believe I still have the mold that this instrument was made around. I will post it also.

The sides were bent freehand,as is the usual way,around a heated oval pipe,which had a large alcohol lamp inside it. I made that,too,but no longer have it.

Enjoy. These are scanned from 400 speed film slides,and the carving isn't seen clearly enough. Maybe I can get with the owner and make some better pictures.

[Mike Henderson]

Wow, George. That's an amazing piece. I'm just in awe.

Mike

[Chris Vandiver]

I'm dumbstruck by how beautifully and skillfully the work was done on that instrument. Simply awe inspiring!

[Brian Kent]

This is a beautiful work. Do you know if the musician who plays it has any recordings. I would love to hear the tuning before the "well-tempered" adjustments to the scale.

[David Weaver]

Ahh, the board has been starving lately for something like this.

Really exceptional. It's hard to even know how to appreciate work that good because work like the carving on the peghead, the clean scroll and freehand groove is inconceivable.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

That's simply stunning George. Thanks for sharing. I've worked enough curly maple I have an idea how difficult it must be to carve those patterns - and something "simple" like that is almost worse because everything needs to be symetrical and match it's neighbors to look right. That kind of maple always finds a few spots that it wants to disagree no matter what you do.

Particularly love the carving on the back of the peghead. Is the pierced piece of the carving applied, or did you remove the material on the other side of the peghead before carving?

[Ron Brese]

Wow! Thanks for posting this.

Ron Brese

[george wilson]

I'm glad you all are enjoying it. The carving and the peghead are all carved from one piece: the carving is not added separately. You can see from the side view shown on You Tube(check below) that the peghead's scroll is pierced,as was usual on these instruments.

By the miracle of You Tube,Google viola da gamba Wayne Moss,and you can see a video someone took of him playing in Williamsburg. I see that Wayne's girth has continued to prosper over the years!!

For some reason the finish on the instrument looks flat,but it is not. I saw Wayne just a few years ago,and it was still looking very nice.

I'm pretty sure I made the ivory frogged bow also,but there are bits I am forgetting now. I did make several bows with ivory frogs years ago. One had a cut away oval in it,with a little silver bee with abalone wings set into it (because the bow makes the buzz). The bee was 3 dimensional. I made it for one of our employees,the young lady who plays the spinet at the beginning and ending of our movie about spinet and violin making. I took no pictures of it. She was also an excellent violinist. I made it when she was still working there,took it finished off the bench,and gave it to her.

I have added more material to the initial posting. And,a bit of history.

You are right,Joshua: The slightest deviation on plain lines will stand out badly.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

George, you never cease to amaze. You are simply an astounding artist and craftsman. Thank you for sharing your always exceptional work with us!

P.S. Can you tell me the method for the inlay?

Thanks, Jeff

[Charles Goodnight]

Lovely instrument. As an occasional cello player I am struggling with how 7 strings could be tuned. Are they tuned to 5ths? if so is the top string in the same range as the Cello A string? It is hard to imagine it could go a whole lot higher without putting way to much stress on the instrument and the string, but in that case the lowest strings must be way to low for a modern cello, down in the base range. On another note, I simply do not understand how you adjust string frets, and why they don't slip when you are playing. So, as impressed as I am with your workmanship, I am also impressed with the skill it must take to play that instrument.

OK, musician hat off, wood working hat on. Thanks for sharing this instrument!

[Charles Goodnight]

Lovely instrument. As an occasional cello player I am struggling with how 7 strings could be tuned. Are they tuned to 5ths? if so is the top string in the same range as the Cello A string? It is hard to imagine it could go a whole lot higher without putting way to much stress on the instrument and the string, but in that case the lowest strings must be way to low for a modern cello, down in the base range. On another note, I simply do not understand how you adjust string frets, and why they don't slip when you are playing. So, as impressed as I am with your workmanship, I am also impressed with the skill it must take to play that instrument.

OK, musician hat off, wood working hat on. Thanks for sharing this instrument!

OK. Answered some of my own questions: It is tuned in 4ths, not 5ths, and as such is perhaps closer to a bowed guitar than to a cello. Still cannot fathom the skill needed to set the frets and how you make them not move.

[george wilson]

We played gut fretted guitars every day for many years in the shop. It just takes getting used to,and developing technique to not disturb the frets. We never found it terribly difficult to do. Even the new members of the shop,who had classical guitar training easily took to playing with the tied on frets.

I have noticed on the Tonight Show,where the lead in music pans from behind the guitarist in the band,he is playing a guitar with black nylon looking tied on frets,but you only get a brief glimpse. I'm curious to see more of that instrument,and to know why he's playing it.

You are right,Charles,it is rather like a bowed guitar.

[David Weaver]

George, how do you know how to voice an instrument like that, and how do you know what things like top thickness, etc should be? Were there examples floating around williamsburg to examine?

There are so many instrument makers now who can't even (or won't) properly voice instruments that exist in the millions, how do you get enough reference to make something that visually excellent and be confident that it will have the tonal qualities that a player will want?

[george wilson]

I have an ability to wing it when making unusual instruments. Just practice and years of experience,and an ability to feel your way along that may or may not be in a person. The Gamba came out fine. I made some others for the music teacher's shop,a tenor and another bass. It wasn't one of our usual instruments to make. I made an orpharion for another guitarist. That was really stretching it. Google it and see what you get.

The thickness of the top was based on the thickness of cello tops,but allowing for their being smaller instruments,the thickness was reduced to scale. I can't recall if I tuned the top of this instrument,though I always tuned the top and back of violins so they would not have the same resonant frequencies. On the gamba,this was not feasible because the back is a nearly flat,braced back similar to a guitar type back.

P.S.: I did google it (orpharion)and got a video of Greensleeves being played. Wish he had tuned the orpharion a bit better,but not too bad. The orpharion had metal strings and consequently,metal frets. Especially needed since the frets were radically angled to increase the length of the bass strings.

I must go walk the dogs through a forested area. While they are sniffing everything,I can admire the beech trees,and wish I could have them. Not a single one on my own property!

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Fantastic, George!!! Man I'd really love to visit you in your shop just to look upon your shoulder and to see how on earth you manage it to make those wonderful instruments...

Klaus