INvention v

This is an 8-string cello-like instrument that has never had its species named. It has five courses of bowable strings, the lowest three of which are double courses tuned in unison, the highest two of which are single courses of thin steel strings. There is a side harp with six additional strings in an open tuning which are also arranged so that they can be bowed to produce two separate chords. It plays in the range of a cello or a baritone guitar, and I have usually used open tunings starting with a low B. 

This instrument uses a combination of found materials and elaborately carved wood. The apparently random and complex shapes that the wood is carved into disguises its actual functionality—this actually holds the instrument away from the player's body so that the hands can be held in a comfortable position for bowing when the instrument hangs on a strap. The metal resonant body parts are from cymbals and lamp parts, with many springs and pieces of spring steel in the mix.

Most of the wooden parts of the body are Honduran mahogany and American walnut with decorative pieces placed throughout of bocote, padouk, canary wood, and purple heart. It has a three-piece neck of ipe and walnut without a truss rod. The fingerboard is cocobola with padouk side stripes. The foot at the bottom is also a found table leg of mahogany. 

It is amplified with a piezo pickup. 

Photos by Adrian Buckmaster