The ultimate one-stringed musical instrument of American origin, is called, appropriately enough, the “One-string”. It is often made and played in hobo camps.
The instrument consists of a piece of 2 X 4 (4 X 2 to you Brits), about 2-1/2 feet long, with a nail driven into each end, bent on one end. The (fishing line) string is wound around the nails and pulled up taut with the bent nail. Two bits of scavenged dowel rod, or other such, serve as nut and bridge, and a #10 tin can with a notch in the edge is tacked down over one end of the string to act as a resonator.
Playing the instrument is simple - one slips the neck of a broken wine or beer bottle over one finger and uses that much like a dobro or steel guitar’s steel, to slide up and down the string, while the string nearest the tin can is tapped with a stick.
-There is a mideastern instrument called the rebec with only three strings, played with a bow. Usually played in modes of arabic music, but could be played any way you like-its fretless.
_-edited for accuracy ________________
Brian O.
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-10-15 23:17 ]
Instead of a striged instrument, you could consider a jug. It’s ready made. You can actually do a lot with it. Here are two web sites. One has some washtub bass information too. http://www.schnipp.com/jug.htm http://www.jugstore.com/
Would that be the erh-hu? If so, it’s actually a two stringed, fretless violin held upright, placed on the lap and played with a bow. The neck is so thin you could easily think that it had only one string if you didn’t take a close look. I wouldn’t suggest it as any easy instrument to learn. I have a CD by Jie-Bing Chen who sounds like she took years of dedicated practice to get to be as good as she is.
I have one. I found a professional erhu player in Stuttgart and she brought me one from China. It is a really gorgeous instrument and produces a beautiful sound (not when touched by me). Shame that I hardly play it. I think once I have mastered my UPs (harhar…) I’ll tackle this one. It just cannot be much more difficult than that.
Or, well…