I've done a bit of experimentation in the past by tying nylon frets on my double bass and on a cheap cello, but I'd love to try out something like the guitarviol, a bass or tenor gamba, a violone or an arpeggione and I'm looking for a cheap way to get into this.
From my experimentation nylon or gut frets really only work well with nylon or gut strings, and gut or synthetic gut strings that are made for bowed instruments tend to be quite expensive honestly. So I'd personally prefer "normal" metal frets over tying my own since that would allow me to broaden the string choice to something like a set of flatwound guitar or bass strings to mess with different tunings without breaking the bank.
Obviously the neck needs to be wide enough for 6 strings and it needs to be curved like an upright bass or cello. Fretting a cello neck doesn't really work since there is not enough space on there for 6 strings, and any fretted instrument that comes to mind doesn't have the correct curvature to it to make it bowable (at least I can't think of any). The only thing that came to my mind would be to keep my eyes open for a dirt cheap 1/8 or 1/16 upright bass and modify it, since the fingerboard should at least be wider than on a cello.
Lastly, I am aware of relatively cheap chinese gambas and arpeggiones made by Song Chung, but at the price they currently sit at (500€-600€ including shipping, plus import taxes and customs and whatnot) I'm not really too keen on gambling on these mystery instruments.
I hope I didn't ramble on too much, I have some luthiery skills which I can use to modify existing, cheap instruments to fit this bill (which is also why I put this into the luthier's corner, I hope that's okay), I could gamble on a chinese instrument or I could hope to find a used fretted tenor or bass fiddle or gamba to finally be able to experiment with that sort of instrument. I'm happy for any pointers people can give me or general input on what kind of instrument to use and how to modify it to fit the bill, or if I should just accept compromises like 4 strings on a modified cello or gut frets and strings. Overall it should be done with as little money as possible, less than 500€ ideally, since I doubt that this'll be anything that I can resell with any value after I'm done repurposing it and experimenting with it.
From my experimentation nylon or gut frets really only work well with nylon or gut strings, and gut or synthetic gut strings that are made for bowed instruments tend to be quite expensive honestly. So I'd personally prefer "normal" metal frets over tying my own since that would allow me to broaden the string choice to something like a set of flatwound guitar or bass strings to mess with different tunings without breaking the bank.
Obviously the neck needs to be wide enough for 6 strings and it needs to be curved like an upright bass or cello. Fretting a cello neck doesn't really work since there is not enough space on there for 6 strings, and any fretted instrument that comes to mind doesn't have the correct curvature to it to make it bowable (at least I can't think of any). The only thing that came to my mind would be to keep my eyes open for a dirt cheap 1/8 or 1/16 upright bass and modify it, since the fingerboard should at least be wider than on a cello.
Lastly, I am aware of relatively cheap chinese gambas and arpeggiones made by Song Chung, but at the price they currently sit at (500€-600€ including shipping, plus import taxes and customs and whatnot) I'm not really too keen on gambling on these mystery instruments.
I hope I didn't ramble on too much, I have some luthiery skills which I can use to modify existing, cheap instruments to fit this bill (which is also why I put this into the luthier's corner, I hope that's okay), I could gamble on a chinese instrument or I could hope to find a used fretted tenor or bass fiddle or gamba to finally be able to experiment with that sort of instrument. I'm happy for any pointers people can give me or general input on what kind of instrument to use and how to modify it to fit the bill, or if I should just accept compromises like 4 strings on a modified cello or gut frets and strings. Overall it should be done with as little money as possible, less than 500€ ideally, since I doubt that this'll be anything that I can resell with any value after I'm done repurposing it and experimenting with it.
