Good day,
I run an instrument repair business and have a customers Bass fiddle in my workshop to restore. It is a very unusual instrument in that it has a Banjo body complete with vellum but a standard double bass neck .Judging by the neck dimentions etc it will be tuned as per a double bass. The body is huge,vellum is 30 inches or 760 mm across and the instrument is very heavy.
I have also been informed by the owner that these instruments were played on the old paddle steamers!
I thought it was a bull fiddle, but the word bull fiddle seems to be a loose term for a standard double bass or bass fiddle etc.
Does any one have a clue as to what this instrument could be?
Many thanks Rob Drake in Cape Town.