The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126097   Message #2798670
Posted By: Jack Blandiver
29-Dec-09 - 02:25 PM
Thread Name: What is it? (eBay instrument - Goodwill)
Subject: RE: What is it? (eBay instrument - Goodwill)
Pianolin sounds about right, but it's missing it's bow! You can see an integral block of resin in one of the pictures - a neat touch it has in common with various other bowed (folk) instruments. Contraptions such as this would eventually lose the chord strings & morph into the Bowed Psaltery - which people assume is medieval or otherwise traditional, but isn't, despite their persistence in Folk Shops. The Ukelin is a similar beast, as used by Sun Ra on Strange Strings & other Saturn classics.