Hardanger Viola Pochette

This particular instrument combines elements of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, or it's counterpart the swedish latfiol, within a unique body design, which resembles the old pochette or Dancing Master travel fiddle in shape. However I've deepened the body considerably to make the tone much bigger and without the nasal tone of the usual travel violin.


The scale length is the same as in a medium sized viola, 15 inches from nut to bridge. There are four playing strings, tuned as in a viola(CGDA), with the lowest C string tuned up one step to D giving a tuning across the board as DGDA. There are three sympathetic strings tuned AGD running in a hollow beneath the fingerboard and exiting at a specially adapted nut. Numerous tuning combinations are possible!  The instrument has a long narrow body,  which becomes gradually deeper nearer the endpin.

The shoulders are carved from solid beech, with a cutaway on the treble side, and contoured for an organic look, as is the pegbox which incorporates a very slight curve in the design. The neck and pegbox are beech, the back, sides and top of the instrument are all solid mahogany and the end piece is ash. The mahogany top is a slight departure from my usual spruce top, but works very nicely for this particular instrument, lending a dark tone with a lot of sustain, plus the grain and colour is beautiful. The top and back are also flat, as in a medieval vielle, rather than arched shape of a modern violin.  The fingerboard is oak, and considerably flatter than a normal fiddle, around about a 60mm radius, as is the bridge. The two nuts are rosewood and oak, the end pins are mahogany and imitation bone. The bridge is handcarved from beech and the soundpost and bass bar are AAA grade spruce. The tailpiece has four fine tuners for the melody strings, the sympathetic strings are tuned at the pegs.


I  used two tailpieces for this fiddle initially, the first a plain maple one I made myself and also a modern alloy one with integral fine tuners. The maple one was far superior in tone but the ease of tuning with the alloy won through when it came to selling. Next time I will make a hardwood one with fine tuners for melody and sympathetic strings. The tuning pegs are handcarved by myself from mahogany and oak. The C, G and D strings are all Thomastik Precision steel core strings and the A string is a Thomastik Superflexible. The sympathetic strings are plain steel 0.10 and 0.13 guage guitar strings. 

The decoration is ink applied by dip pen, and the whole instrument has a simple but very attractive hand rubbed finish. I have added a little patina here and there to give the instrument a look of age, with some fading and tiny dips and nicks in particular to the back.

This instrument is sold, but you can commission a similar one by emailing me at joelmerriner@hotmail.com. Various design elements, wood choices, tunings are available. I also make this instrument in normal fiddle tuning GDAE.