This Teble Viol, or Viola da Gamba, was commissioned by a player in Taiwan. He wanted a unique, modern, electric treble viol.
The design leverages the existing Modular Fiddle platform, but with six strings and a string length of 380mm, it pushes the limits of what load the neck and body can support.
A custom neck with a large truss rod is used, and is printed in extra-stiff carbon fiber PLA. The neck can be made with or without a false bout. Without the bout, there is more room on the neck to tie frets.
The neck has features that allow the player to attach support straps to play standing.
The body is updated with a larger bass bar, thicker ribs, and unique sound holes that increase the stiffness of the top plate, maintain the dominant air resonance frequency of the body, and gesture towards a traditional viol sound hole shape.
This viol is built with six Wittner geared pegs and a Aquila Red synthetic strings. A Realist Copperhead pickup provides amplification.
Two versions were built. One with a false bout and all black, and one without the bout with red accents.
