I have a single stringed instrument and I have no idea what it is.
can anyone help?
There are some photos here
All I know is that it is a single stringed, it has an ivory neck and is well made.
The f holes indicate it should be bowed and is european in manufacture or has been restored.
It has a W.Hickie Reading stamp which is a music shop in Rading UK which has been around since the mid 1800’s
Any help would be appreciated!
James
The f-holes do not necessarily indicate bowing - think of all the guitars and mandolins with F holes. The flat body with no C-bouts would make bowing tricky.
I think it’s more likely in the nature of a practise instrument in the Banjo family.
Hickie still have a repair and restoration department, so maybe send them the link to the photos, and they may have something on record about it.
thanks for the reply - it has a sound post as well which is the other reason I think it may have been bowed.
I have sent Hickie’s an email and I’m waiting for a reply.
I think it’s around 100 years old, W.Hickie was one of the Brothers who founded the shop, they traded from 1864-1913 when they sold the business.
I’d love to know what it is, I can’t find anything like it on the web - I think it might be a custom version of a middle Eastern instrument
James
With only one string the flat broad top should present no problem for bowing, although I would get bored playing such an instrument.
Another reason I don’t like the bowed theory is that it doesn’t look like it could be held confortably to be bowed. There’s also no indication of rosin which ought to be present on any bowed instrument.
OTOH there’s no gearing on the tuning peg, suggesting lower string tension than common in plucked instruments (at least, ones I’m familiar with).
Could we have some more pictures?
I’d like to see a close up of the fingerboard & frets to see if there are signs of wear, and a picture of someone holding it as they think it might be played - maybe one holding it like a banjo as if it were to be plucked, and one with it balanced on the knees as if it were to be bowed. At present there’s nothing to give it scale, so I’m having trouble guessing at its actual dimensions.
What is the scale length? Is there any sign of where a bridge was placed? Bowed or plucked, it would still need a bridge.
The scratches on the back suggest it has been rubbing on someone’s belt buckle, and I don’t think they would be present in that form on a bowed instrument.
To me it looks like a fretted, wooden-top, Western European re-interpretation of a Balkan gusle - which is indeed bowed, having a single string, and played semi-upright on the lap (accounting for belt marks).
Sheesh, Guru… is there ANYTHING that you don’t know?
Personally, I think you made that up…
Back in the late 70s I was involved in a something called the Gary Project at the Indiana University Folklore Institute. Part of this involved interviewing Serbian and Croatian traditional musicians in the Chicago-Gary area. So I had my fill of tamburitza bands and guslars.
Also, the gusle is quite famous in the history of folklore research, as it formed the basis for Albert Lord and Milman Parry’s seminal study of oral formulaic theory, The Singer of Tales, motivated originally by the Homeric epics. It’s still a good read for anyone interested in the process of creative folk transmission.
http://www.amazon.com/Singer-Tales-Albert-B-Lord/dp/0674002830
It’s inbred. These things happen if you keep instruments in a dark closet for too long.
You mean … stick a gusle, a banjo, and a fiddle in a closet for a few decades, and you end up with this thing? 
Another decade and it will acquire a Hapsburg lip.
Actually, harps typically don’t have geared tuning pegs, and they tend to be under very high tension. Usually they have friction pins (aka “through” pins), though some have threaded zither pins.
Audrey
It’s definitely a Kerry banjo.
Pat.
It might also be a form of psalmodikon, although they often have a more box-like resonator.