Making still another Violin is always challenging, but sometimes a bit boring. I'm happy to have been able to make some unusual instruments. One of these is Viola d'Amore It was most popular in the 18th century, and was played by both humble amateurs and virtuous professionals. Its cousin in Norway, the Hardangerfiddle, has now had 300 years perfecting the idea of sympathetic strings, while the Viola d'Amore more or less went out of use by the beginning of the 19th century.

I have drawn my own model of the Viola d'Amore based on an instrument made by Johann Udalricus Eberle. That "Eberle", however, has 7 playing strings. I think this is a rather baroque exxaggeration, so I also make it with the more sober 6 strings. Talking about many strings:

Tuning was always a problem with this instrument. 6 or 7 sympathetic strings, and the same number of playing strings, can be troublesome! While my model is meant to be historically authentic, I have taken freedom to use modern finetuners for the sympathetic strings, in my own design of the tailpiece. This should make tuning, even of the Viola d'Amore, quite easy.