Custom-Built Musical Instruments at Very Reasonable Rates
Instruments of Antiquity

What can we
create for you?

(Links lead to detailed pages with larger photos and more information...)


Authentic:

Citole:

  Cantigas style
Warwick style

Drums:
  Bodhran

Gusli

Harps:
  Bardic/Lap Harps:
    Gut Strung
    Celtic Wire Strung
  Floor Harps:
    Gothic
    (more to come)

Kantele:
  5 string
  5 string Piccolo
  9 string
  Performance set

Lyres:
  Trossingen
  Sutton Hoo
  Mosning Thorpe
  Bergh Apton
  Oberflacht
  Cologne
  Student Model
Bowed Lyres:
  Crwth
  Jouhikko

Psaltries:
  Pig Nose
  Cantigas style

Rebecs:
  Soprano
  Alto
  Tenor
  Bass

Zithers:
  Fretted:
    Epignette
    Scheitholt
  Fretless:
    Myrna Hammered Dulcimer


Echoic:
Non-authentic, but imitative of the sound of the original instrument

Flutes

Whistles


Jouhikko
Example of one of my jouhikkos
The national instrument of Finland, the Jouhikko belongs to a family of bowed lyres called Tallharpa, or tail harps.  The name comes from the fact that these instruments are strung with twisted horsetail hair and bowed with a horsehair bow.  There is no fingerboard, and most often they are built with two or three strings.  If built with 2 strings, the lowest pitched string (the far right string when viewing the front of the instrument) is used as a drone, and the other string is tuned up a fourth, the notes being coaxed out by stopping this string with the knuckles of the hand holding the thin support arm on the left side of the instrument.  With three strings, the center string is a drone, the far right string is the scale open tone a fourth above the drone, and the left string which is the melody string is a full tone above that, or a fifth above the drone. The short bow is tensioned with the fingers of the right hand With a range of not more than an octave at best, this was a drone fiddle mostly used for folk dances.

Our Jouhikko are based on extant pieces but modified to accomodate the woods chosen for the bodies.  Flat, unbraced soundboards, one piece hollow bodies, and siberian hair strings are our standard design, but these are not your only choices.  Contact us to discuss what you want from your Jouhikko, and we can work wonders to bring it to life.



For more information or to place an order, contact:

Chris Nogy, founder and craftsman
contact@instrumentsofantiquity.com
Phone: 479-283-6364 
  Please call between 9 AM and 7 PM U.S. Central Time  (-6 GMT)



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