This is an interesting experiment. Working from the information sent to Mistress Fionnuala and I by Dr. Ain Haas, this gusli was built for metal strings. This is my first departure into old technology wires, any previous instruments needing metal received standard steel guitar strings. For this I ended up using several sizes of half-hard yellow (cartridge) drawn brass. The sound is unique, It is hard to find a working tuning for an instrument this size in brass, but it ended up the top 8 strings tuned A Aeolian with a bottom f for a drone. In this tuning it has what most people would call a traditional Russian sound. This design was documented from one of two instruments found in an excavation in Novgorod. For the technical details, the body is a single piece of lime, hollowed out, with a figured maple soundboard. The peg reinforcement overlays top and bottom are Brazilian cherry as are the string bar ears. The string bar is brass as are the strings. The carvings are norse inspired, as are the runes down the arm. The runes and the small pan-figure on the soundboard are done in kolrosing, a traditional technique we can find used on instruments as far back as the 6th century (Trossingen lyre). A shallow but wide single groove is cut into the wood with a special wide wedge knife, and then a powder of contrasting color (ground tree bark, charcoal, sawdust) is rubbed into the cut and sealed with oil. This instrument is on its way to its new home in Norway.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 23:24:42 +0000
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