Thanks Lepus, The Yakutia album is available on MP3's through Emusic (by far the best internet subscription I've ever made). After listening to the painful fiddle playing, I would guess that it's the player and not the instrument which makes this particular music so unfortunate. One string fiddles (guslas) are played quite beautifully in Bosnia and Montenegro, and I have a friend who assures me that Chukche one-stringed fiddle music is also quite listenable.