Contraguitar

The contra-guitar and scratchy guitar is a special version of the acoustic guitar with the bass into extended strings. Its main distribution area is the Alpine space. It is in the Viennese music ( Schrammelmusik, named after Josef Schrammelmusik ), as used in the alpine folk music.

Design

The counterpoint guitar has additionally usually a second neck, over the up to nine bass strings stretched swing freely to the normal guitar neck with six strings and fretboard ( drone ). The bass strings are not used, but individually plucked open, as in the harp guitar. The neck of the bass strings therefore requires no fingerboard. The bass strings also vibrate as sympathetic strings with passive and provide for a fuller sound. This reflects the Kontragitarre of other double neck guitars, fretted fingerboards different take on both necks.

Many of the double neck is equipped with a common neck base which is screwed to the body. Furthermore designs with attached second top plate and rod support ( Hermann Hauser, Otwin ) are known. There exist both instruments with the same length ( 63-68 cm), as well as those with ascending ( 63-93 cm) Bassmensur. Standard scale of the playing strings is 63 cm, with newer instruments also 65cm. The bodies of historical counterpoint guitars are mostly quite shallow (8 cm) and constructed over wide compared with sechsssaitigen guitars. A coat of arms design as a guitar is not rare.

A good portion of counterpoint and traditional Viennese guitar was originally designed for Stahlbesaitung. The high tensile load leads, however - especially with ancient instruments - often to serious damage to the instrument statics.

Types

The contra-guitar has two different moods of Bordunbesaitung:

  • The " German " version with an even number of strings, usually twelve, starting voted as the German bass sounds from the deepest game string diatonic down. Most twelve string guitars counterpoint were partly made up in the 1960s in the Vogtland, thus continuing the tradition of the game from 1930 slowly dying German bass sounds for a certain period.
  • Developed in the mid- 19th century in Vienna called " scratchy guitar " can be seen at an odd number of strings ( 13 or 15). The drone strings are here usually chromatically tuned down from it. As a developer, this instrument is the Viennese instrument maker Johann Gottfried Scherzer, the trials of his former training masters Johann Georg Stauffer from 1848, was continuing and decisively improved. Schrammel guitars usually have a rising Bassmensur. Not infrequently, the mechanics of Bass Strings run down sheet reinforced guides. Typical of the Vienna Schrammelgitarre is their bass side swirled headstock. A forming device is often found inserted into the body of a rod made of wood or metal, which compensates for the string tension, and improves the free swinging of the body.
485302
de