Another great fiddle & banjo image - EBay

[markj]

Very nice, and just in time for Christmas......

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=360000483687

I suspect the image probably post-dates 1865, but it's still one of the best I've ever seen.

Yours, &c.,

Mark Jaeger

[Danny]

Very nice, and just in time for Christmas......I suspect the image probably post-dates 1865, but it's still one of the best I've ever seen.Yours, &c.,Mark Jaeger

Mark -

Just noticed this. Thanks for posting it. Although the image seems to post-date 1865, the banjo likely pre-dates the CW. Note the long scale and very large (warped) pot, perhaps indicating a pre-factory instrument.

Attached here is that same photo brightened a bit to disclose the darker areas. If I could I'd post it on that other forum we know of, just to have discussion on whether the "player" just grabbed a studio prop banjo, or does he really know how to play it?

As with all such shots, the photographer likely compensated for mirror-image effect by flipping the right-handed banjo over (5th peg down), which could explain why this player's stroking hand looks so awkward in the pose (because it's actually his left hand).

Any fiddle players here want to comment on whether the fiddle player looks comfortable in holding the fiddle? (Note the heavy string appears on the wrong side of the fretboard, again as would be expected in a flopped photo).

- Dan Wykes

[Pappy]

Excellent image. I noticed there is no chin and shoulder rest. I can't imagine playing that way. It looks like a photograph of my grandfather around the turn of the century. I never new him, but my father tells me he was a pretty good fiddler.

Greg Papierz

[eric marten]

That's interesting, if he were truly playing it with strings reversed. A very miniscule percentage of left handed fiddlers did (and still do) that, with reversing the strings. I know one Canadian who does that, and is also able to step dance while fiddling!!! However, it's entirely unnecessary, since the two hands are engaged in completely different movements and tasks. It was done only once in a while, usually by a player without formal training. The problem with that is that with the strings reversed. the sound becomes a little weak, since the base bar on the inside of the instrument is not under the g string, where it belongs.
As far as playing without a chin rest and shoulder rest, like anything else, you get used to it after a little while. In the pre- chin-rest age, quite a few fiddlers (and classical violinists, as well), used to put a cushion, or rolled up cloth underneath their vest by the left shoulder and chest. This makes it much more comfortable to play without a chin-rest. Fiddlers, try this - it really works. This is well-documented by several of the tutors and manuals of the time. (Baillot, Ferdinand David, etc) Once the chin-rest caught on in the late 19th/early 20th century, this became unnecessary.

[John Peterson]

Wow! I can't get over how far "out-of-round" that pot is on the banjo. I've got at least 4 reject pots I've bent that are more true than that one.

[Danny]

Wow! I can't get over how far "out-of-round" that pot is on the banjo. I've got at least 4 reject pots I've bent that are more true than that one.

John -

Can I have them? I'd pay postage of course. Or will you be at the Mainstream Gettysburg 145th?

- Dan Wykes

[John Peterson]

Dan,
How about if I send you 2 of them?

[Danny]

John, thanks for the offer, we'll go private message from here...

- Dan Wykes

[John Peterson]

Dan,

Email me at ottertin@verizon.net. I generally don't use the private message function on this board.