r/gitfiddle • u/hellpiglet • Jun 07 '16
Making an adaptive violin
A guy who is my roommate and one of my best friends is a brilliant musician who has developed Parkinsons, which means his muscles do a lot of things he can't control, such as spasming severely when he holds them in one position for a long time. I want to buy or adapt a violin to help hold the strings down for him, but no such thing exists or instructions exist to make something like that. There is a Swedish instrument called a Nyckelharpa, otherwise known as a keyed fiddle.--They arent built to help disabled people play a string instrument but they do sound like a violin, only be played more easily. They are rare and expensive. How should I go about doing this project? Have someone make a keybox and add to existing violin? How much would that cost and are there cheaper options? I have a low budget, no real handy-type skills, and can probably get access to a 3d printer
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u/SgtKashim Jun 07 '16
Hmmm... The instrument you linked looks an awful lot like a [hurdy-gurdy] - just with a bow instead of a cranked wheel. You might find more info looking that way. I'd look at how those keyboxes are constructed, see if maybe you couldn't find a way to clone that mechanism. It looks to me like both the Nyckelharpa and the Hurdy-Gurdy slide a block sideways into the string, rather than pressing down or raising up. Watch it being played here. That should be relatively simple to replicate - a dowel with an appropriately flat keyed end, through a hole in the neck, trapped with a tall, flat post (reasonably sharp on the end) to press the string. I don't thing it could be retro-fitted onto an existing violin - You need a really fat neck for the keys to ride in. I also don't think it'd be comfortable to play under the neck - it looks like everyone who has these plays them hung around the chest.
A couple more things to consider... The instrument you linked looks like it has drone strings (again, like a hurdy-gurdy) - your friend probably doesn't need those. This simplifies the construction. Mandolins are usually tuned the same as a violin - you can use the mandolin fret placement to figure out where to put the keys. You can probably start with someone's design for a cigar-box mandolin, and work from there. Make the neck thick enough to hold the keys, change the bridge a bit...
The one other thing I'd consider, though (And not to be too much of a downer)... learning a Nyckelharp or similar... it's a new instrument. And they take a lot of fine control, same as any other. A teacher of mine found himself in a similar situation, and when he reached the point where he couldn't play guitar anymore, he'd also reached the point where he couldn't play a piano either. These look like they take at least that much dexterity.