Baritone Violins

Octave Violins from Fiddarci Lutherie in Collaboration with Don Rickert Musical Instruments

A baritone violin, more properly called an octave violin, is an instrument with a vibrating string length exactly the same as a standard violin, but tuned one octave lower. This puts a baritone/octave violin in the note range between the viola and the ‘cello. Special “fat” strings are used on octave violins to achieve the lower pitch. In fact, a musician can put octave strings on a standard violin and it will play an octave lower, but it will have very little power, volume or depth of timbre without electric amplification.

Designed to be Octave Violins!

The Rickert-Fiddarci instrument is a true purpose-built (not a converted violin or viola...it's made to play low!) octave violin is specifically designed to draw all of the sound possible out of such a small instrument. After over 10 years of experimentation and research, Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins, while having the same vibrating string length as a regular violin, have incredible power, beautiful deep timbre and VOLUME without amplification, and superior playability. The instruments can be seen and heard on Don Rickert Research & Design’s YouTube site at or simply go to DoctorFiddle on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/DoctorFiddle and look for the play list called “Demonstrations of New Baritone Fiddle.”) Some of the greatest musicians in the world own and play the Rickert-Fiddarci instruments and they are beginning to show up on their recordings.

Inspired by an Old Design

The Octave Violins from Fiddarci Lutherie™ were designed by Don Rickert, Ph.D., IDSA  of Don Rickert Research & Design™, inspired by an obscure and unique violin from the mid-19th Century. This inspirational instrument, called the “Cradle of Harmony” was invented by the artist and inventor William Sidney Mount. W.S. Mount’s Cradle of Harmony attracted Dr. Rickert’s attention during his years of design research related to octave violins. In tribute to William Sidney Mount, we call our Octave Violins by the name Cradle of Harmony™.

There are significant differences, such as use of a modern bassbar and soundpost, between William Sidney Mount’s brilliant creation and our Octave Violins, but one central design feature shared by our modern instrument and Mount’s 160 year old design is the use of bent flat plates for the top and back rather the traditional carved arched plates. The tops of our instruments are convex and the backs are concave. Further, Mount’s instruments were tuned like standard violins; hence, our Octave Violins, made specifically to play an octave lower, have much higher ribs than Mount’s in order to increase the airspace within the soundbox, one of many important variables for obtaining power and volume from a stringed instrument.

Dimensions and Fittings on a Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violin

Size/dimensions

• Body length: 355mm
• Overhang (top and back): 2mm
• Lower bout width: 208mm
• Upper bout width: 172mm
• Rib height: Range from 38mm to 39mm. depending on the location on the instrument from which the measurement is taken
• Vibrating string length: approximately 325mm, depending on player preference (note: many players prefer a slightly longer vibrating string length on an octave violin than that of a standard violin.)
• Weight: 539 grams (19.0 oz.)...very light in weight!

Note about Shoulder Rests: Due to the concave back of this instrument, despite its substantially greater rib height, our Octave Violin fits into a standard violin case. Rickert-Fiddarci octave instruments will accept any standard 4/4/ violin Kun™ or Wolf™ type shoulder rest; however, owing to the rib height and the concave back, many players find a shoulder rest to be unnecessary.

Fittings

• Chin Rest: Specially modified “over-the-tailpiece” chin rest
• Pegs: Various options are available, including the new Wittner™ planetary geared tuning pegs, which we highly recommend.
• Tailpiece: Wittner™ polycarbonate tailpiece with built-in fine tuners unless another option is negotiated.
• Strings: SuperSensitive Sensicore™ perlon core, aluminum wound Octave Strings. Other string options are available. While we do not recommended Thomastik-Infeld™ octave violin strings for this instrument; however some customers seeking a particular sound (“biting”) use them. Some customers have even strung our instruments with custom-made true gut strings.

Target Audience: Who Plays Acoustic Octave Violins and Fiddles?

In some cases, beginner fiddlers who cannot stand the high pitch of a violin or the large size of a full-size viola will start their musical journey on an octave violin; however, the most prevalent players are serious advanced amateur and professional musicians, many of whom are recording artists.

Most makers of acoustic Octave Violins target their instruments to skilled “alternative” violinists and fiddlers looking for a new lower voice, allowing him or her to play low pitched musical parts almost as low as a ‘cello, without learning a new instrument, as the notes are in the same places on the fingerboard as a regular violin. The only new skill to learn is the proper use of a heavier viola bow. Until the introduction of the Rickert-Fiddarci instruments and a handful of other purpose-built instruments, such as those by Tim Phillips in Wales, U.K., players were limited to converted violins or violas and had to rely on electronic amplification in order to achieve the projection volume, depth and power necessary when playing with other musicians.

Keep in mind that some players actually prefer converted violins for their style of playing. For example, a major proponent of converted violins, Darol Anger, plays what might be described as a rhythmic-percussive style and a purpose-built octave instrument is simply too bassy and rich in overtones for his taste. I am certain that I did not articulate this very well and I will be hearing from Darol to correct my current understanding of his viewpoint :-)

One more point about converted violins: there actually are certain violins that play very nicely as octaves after conversion. We have had very good results from conversions of high-quality Maggini violin reproductions, which are considerably larger than violins based on the Stradiveri or Guarneri paterms, which have become the standard...Maggini died 15 years before Stradiveri was born. There is another posting about this topic.

Design Research Behind the Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins (Summary)

Dr. Don Rickert, IDSA , an Industrial Designer, Ergonomics expert, Design Researcher and Luthier, of Don Rickert Research & Design™ built the initial prototype of the instruments that ultimately evolved into the Rickert-Fiddarci top-of-the-line octave violins about 10 years ago as a “side project”. Since then, at least 15 prototypes and hundreds of hours of testing with musicians has been done in the quest for volume, power and depth of timbre, as well as “playability”, which is synonymous with ergonomics in the musical instrument world.

The product development process of repeated iterative prototyping and testing combined with other consumer research methods such as real world observation (ethnography) and “depth interviewing” is called Design Research by those in the Industrial Design profession, of which Dr. Rickert is a Professional Member.

Dr. Rickert's research participants included musicians from many disciplines, including classical and experimental violinists as well as fiddlers in many genres, ranging from Scottish Highland to experimental jazz-Bluegrass fusion.

Some photos from the design research are shown below. Note that the faces of minors are “pixilated” in order to obscure their identity. There are some famous faces as well!

Click on any of the thumbnail images for full-size views.

Design Research Behind the Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins (Details)

Dr. Don Rickert and his Research Assistants (Industrial Design Masters candidates) extensively tested his initial “almost-ready-for-production” octave violin designs with close to 100 professional and amateur Old Time, Bluegrass and Cetlic fiddlers, expert level viola players, a large number of young violinists in the Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra and violinists with the Russian Chamber Orchestra.

One prototype was based on an enlarged Chanot-type (i.e. cornerless or 'guitar-shaped) violin with arched and graduated top and back. This model appears in many of the photos of the extensive field research carried out. Another tested design was based on a modified small (14") viola and yet another on an otherwise unmodified high-quality Maggini reproduction violin set up with octave strings.

The octave-strung small viola lacked the projection power that most evaluators sought; however, players interested in a quieter instrument or who intended to use a pickup loved this model owing to its easy playability…a 14” viola is essentially a violin with a heavier bass bar and larger-diameter sound post.

The Chanot-based design did quite well and may, in fact, be produced in the future, as did the Maggini copy (note: Maggini’s have a larger body than what has become a “standard” violin and have a long history of being re-strung as small violas and reportedly even as octave instruments).

At a certain point in his research, Dr. Rickert re-discovered an obscure invention, which he had looked at several years earlier, for which a U.S. Patent was granted to the artist, fiddler and inventor, William Sidney Mount, in 1852. It was the so-called “Cradle of Harmony”, a trapezoid-shaped fiddle with a flat top plate bent to be convex and the back plate bent to be concave. Subsequently, Mount designed and built himself several “guitar-shaped” versions, which had the convex top and concave back as well.

By all accounts, one of the reasons Mount’s instruments did not succeed in the mid-19th Century marketplace was that they were too loud for contemporary orchestral use. This sounded like a good design to improve upon in the design of an acoustic octave violin, where the chief limitation has always been volume and power.

A quick mockup of Mount’s “Cradle of Harmony” from his patent drawings revealed that these instruments were indeed astoundingly loud and powerful. Mount’s bent flat top and back plates produce an extremely stiff instrument with much thinner wood than a traditional violin. This observation accords with recent research on violin acoustics. It has been said that if Stradivari, quite an innovator himself, were living today, his instruments would have flat tops and backs.

The next step towards the ultimate octave violin was to make it bigger and to modernize the internal structure. The changes in the internal structure are described in another posting.

The images shown below are of the actual working prototype used for design research and user field testing with over 100 evaluators. The images shown are the final form of the test instrument, which was dissembled (different bassbar designs, rib heights, neck angles, etc.) and put back together a number of times by Dr. Rickert.

Click on any of the thumbnails for a full-size view.

 

This prototype became the basic model for the Rickert & Ringholz™/Fiddarci Lutherie™ Type II Octave Violin, to which the signature “scroll-less” neck, unique purfling and other lutherie magic were added by Shep Jones of Fiddarci Lutherie™.

Several images of the Type II Octave Violin™ are shown below.

Click on any of the thumbnails for a full-size view.

     

Additional design research in accord with a philosophy of continuous innovation, which continued after the Type II Octave Violin™ went into production revealed a group of players looking for a somewhat darker and complex (i.e. noticeable harmonic overtones) sound, which led to development of the Cradle of Harmony Octave Violin™, which utilizes sound holes patterned after the historic and enigmatic reverse f-holes used on William Sidney Mount’s instruments. The larger aperture size of the reverse f-holes rather than the shape probably has more to do with producing the darker timbre; however, one can never be certain about such matters.

In any case, there now exist two models of octave violin that are identical except for their soundhole design. Photos of the Cradle of Harmony Octave Violin™ appear below:

Click on any of the thumbnails for a full-size view.

   

Shep Jones of Fiddarci Lutherie™ has produced yet a 3rd model of hollow-back octave violin designed to produce extremely high projection volume (it’s VERY LOUD!), a result of continued experimentation by Shep Jones of Fiddarci Lutherie™ on the interactions of tone woods, graduation patterns, bassbar design and soundpost dimensions. This instrument may go into regular production after extensive testing of its structural integrity over time.

Slideshow with audio of initial octave violin prototype based on the W.S. Mount instruments

Here are some pictures of the pre-production version of the Type II Octave Violin used for consumer testing. It has the same playing dimensions as a regular violin or fiddle, but is much fatter and is based on the bent plate principles of William Sidney Mount's 'Cradle of Harmony', patented in 1852. This instrument has volume, projection and playability that baffles even the most persistent skeptics.

Click the speaker icon in the lower left to hear it. Sorry about the ad that you will have to endure...just wait a few seconds for it to go away.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More Photos from Field Research on Octave Violin Prototypes

Click on any of the thumbnails for full-size views.

People Playing Rickert & Ringholz Baritone (Octave) Violins as Part of Design Research

This photo montage video shows many various photos from the design research for octave violins conducted by Dr. Don Rickert of Don Rickert Research & Design(tm) (Rickert & Ringholz Musical Instruments(tm)). The details of Dr. Rickert's design research is described in other postings on this site.

The backing audio is, as usual, Darci Jones of Fiddarci Lutherie(tm) and the band Hooley. We actually have a short video clip with audio of Natalie Haas, the world famous 'cellist, playing an early Chanot-type prototype built by Dr. Rickert...you will find it in another post. Other notable people in the montage are Alasdair Fraser (talking to Dr. Rickert rather than playing) and Laura Risk. Alasdair Fraser either has a brand new Rickert & Ringholz-Fiddarci Lutherie Cradley of Harmony Octave Violin.

The William Sidney Mount Historic 1852 “Cradle of Harmony”

In the 1840s, the artist, inventor and musician, William Sidney Mount, invented a new type of violin. He received a U.S. Patent in 1852. The violins came in both a trapezoidal and a 'guitar-shaped' form. Both types, instead of having a carved top and back, utilized bent flat plates, the top being convex and the back concave. For this reason, Mount's instruments are sometimes called "hollow-back" violins. There were other differences from regular violins, such as the reverse sound holes on the guitar-shaped version of his instrument.

An interesting note is that Mount wrote quite a few fiddle tunes, familiar to Old-Time fiddlers in the Northeast of the U.S. This genre is often called “Down East” style. One of his most famous tunes is ‘Shep Jones' Hornpipe’...the owner of Fiddarci Lutherie is also named Shep Jones...it kind of gave us goose bumps. Mount's painting, 'Dance of the Haymakers' used Shep

Jones' barn as the setting.

By all accounts, Mount’s instruments were extremely loud for their size; which is what Mount was trying to achieve, as he wanted to be heard above the other instruments when performing on fiddle...he was not shy! Alas, the high projection volume of Mount’s instruments proved to be one of the factors contributing to their ultimate obscurity today. Apparently, the Cradles of Harmony were too loud for orchestral use. There were other factors, not the least of which was the fact Mount was not very diligent at marketing them or having them manufactured in great numbers. As is the case with many inventors, Mount invented something that he wanted for himself. Besides, he was busy enough as an extremely prolific painter and is well-known today, at least by students of Art History. Many of his paintings are quite familiar to people living today even if they do not know the artist, such as “The Banjo Player” and “Dance of the Haymakers”.

While Mount made perhaps as many as a dozen instruments, only a few instruments survive today, most of them owned by a division of the Smithsonian Institution, only one or two of them are in playable condition. Apparently Mount was not as good as a luthier as he was as an inventor and designer. The same can be said of other noteworthy musical instrument inventor/designers such as Orville Gibson, founder of the Gibson Mandolin Co. and inventor of the modern mandolin. Any serious student of the modern mandolin knows that those made by Orville Gibson himself are of extremely poor quality.

Fundamental differences between Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins and the Original Cradle of Harmony from 1852

Unlike the 19th Century William Sidney Mount instruments, which had a single bass bar placed in the center of the soundboard, and no sound post, the Don Rickert design instruments utilize the many discoveries of decades of bass bar research and “best practices”, and use a sound post as well. Another departure from Mount's creation was the radius of the bend for the convex top and the concave back (approximately 21") rather than the approximate 18" radius used by Mount…in other words, the bend in the modern tops and backs is not as extreme.

Also, the original Cradles of Harmony were NOT octave violins and had ribs approximately 29mm in height, in contrast to the ribs of almost 40mm used on the Rickert-Fiddarci Octave Violins—there are a considerable extra cubic centimeters of airspace inside of the sound box of our Octave Violins. The extra airspace, combined with our own experimentation with bass bar tuning and aperture (soundhole) size is one of the secrets of the beautiful and powerful sound our instruments produce.