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Ruby-Gamba The Electric Viola da Gamba

#5
That looks like alot of fun, but I think bowing a 7 string would be rather tough. I'd rather have something like this:

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#6
An interesting take on the viola da gamba and actually sounds pretty close. All viola da gamba family members typically had 6 strings through the Renaissance but a 7th string was added to the bass in France in the late 1600s. They pretty much worked out the bowing of it at that time but I couldn't say it is easy, just an adjustment. Check out the works of Marin Marais (who I believe is credited with adding the 7th string) and Antoine Forqueray, the "Angel" and "Devil" respectively of the gamba during its heyday. They frequently played chords as part of the melodic structure of their music.
I still have a couple gambas from an early music phase and play them periodically.
 
#8
john turner said:
yummy! wow. i'm in love too. :hyper:
Click to expand...
She's mine! :spit:

If the luthier wasn't in another country, I'd probably look into buying one. $4000+ is a lot of money to send overseas. Especially if I couldn't try one out first. I'm going to see if Pete Hanewinckel can build me something like that. Perhaps more like a bass, scale-length and body style-wise.

Here are a couple more pics from the site.

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Don't ya just want to eat them up! :D

- Dave
 
#10
Hey! That's not a bass guitar! :hiding:

That looks/sounds amazing. I play mostly upright, and I REALLY wish I could play one of those, too. If only I were rich... and good enough to justify getting one. :D
 
#11
That's definately a cool design. I've often thought that the gamba could make a comeback if marketed as a modern electric instrument and not just something to play "period" music on. I'm glad to see they extended the frets to cover the length of the fingerboard. That's just a sweet instrument. Does this company also make bows? Would be cool if they did something akin to a French style bass bow with adjustable hair tension. I think that would make them a lot more accessible to people not studied in period music.

btw, it shouldn't be tuned in straight 4ths like a bass. Gambas are tuned like a guitar w/ a maj3 interval between the second and third string.
 

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