the band were back in the town today and I went and chatted to the fiddle player. It turned out to be a solid bodied elctric job fitted with frets by the manufactuar, some chap in the states, and had five strings, one lower than regular. I would also say it had a very flat fingerboard.

The player played fabulous chords and variations with fantastic effect and he told me he had moved from mandolin to fretted fiddle real easily using this intsrument.

thank you all for help with this matter

stevethesqueeze