When I was reading about the history of contra dance for my college
thesis I learned that Jack Perron (who wrote the
New
England Fiddler's Repertoire with Randy Miller) used to play for
dances with a
Stroh violin.
This is a violin that uses a membrane and horn for amplification,
instead of a resonating wooden body, which is more directional and
(unfortunately not much) louder. There's a
recording
but I haven't been able to find a copy.
The idea of a Stroh violin seemed fun, especially when playing
for Morris dancing or outdoor contra, and a few years later (~2009) when I
realized it was possible to buy one I got very excited about it. I
tried to buy one from Lark in
the Morning but when they went to look on the shelf to send it to
me it wasn't there. I did find one on eBay, though, and spent 11
weeks of my discretionary
spending on it ($422.73):
You can see it's very awkwardly shaped, and it was a bit hard for the
seller to ship:
Am trying to find suitable packaging for this item. Can
find a large box that will fit the violin with lots of padding but not
the bow. May have to look at sending the bow separately in a postal
tube. Will get back to you when I have some idea of costs.
Overall, it is not a good instrument. Some is that this specific one
isn't very good (tuning pegs slip), some is that Strohs in general are
very tinny, but the real issue is they're not actually very loud. The
whole appeal for me was that this would allow a violin to hold its own
with accordions in supporting
acoustic outdoor dancing, but it's just not that much louder than a
normal violin. I'd misunderstood what people meant when they said "2x
louder", because I didn't yet understand how loudness is perceived
logarithmically.
That said, it has gotten some use over the years. Here's my sister
playing it for an outdoor
contra in Davis Sq:
When I was reading about the history of contra dance for my college thesis I learned that Jack Perron (who wrote the New England Fiddler's Repertoire with Randy Miller) used to play for dances with a Stroh violin. This is a violin that uses a membrane and horn for amplification, instead of a resonating wooden body, which is more directional and (unfortunately not much) louder. There's a recording but I haven't been able to find a copy.
The idea of a Stroh violin seemed fun, especially when playing for Morris dancing or outdoor contra, and a few years later (~2009) when I realized it was possible to buy one I got very excited about it. I tried to buy one from Lark in the Morning but when they went to look on the shelf to send it to me it wasn't there. I did find one on eBay, though, and spent 11 weeks of my discretionary spending on it ($422.73):
You can see it's very awkwardly shaped, and it was a bit hard for the seller to ship:
Overall, it is not a good instrument. Some is that this specific one isn't very good (tuning pegs slip), some is that Strohs in general are very tinny, but the real issue is they're not actually very loud. The whole appeal for me was that this would allow a violin to hold its own with accordions in supporting acoustic outdoor dancing, but it's just not that much louder than a normal violin. I'd misunderstood what people meant when they said "2x louder", because I didn't yet understand how loudness is perceived logarithmically.
That said, it has gotten some use over the years. Here's my sister playing it for an outdoor contra in Davis Sq:
And one time I tried to make a counterweight for it with rocks (this didn't work well and I took it apart later):
Mostly it hangs on the wall, people ask me about it, and then they ask me to stop playing it.
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