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Kantele_2_4w

A. Copy of a viol by Bertrand      

B. Bass viol in G after Busch (c.1640)  

C. Leopold Widhalm 3 string bass  

D. A processional bass, possibly Spanish.

This  is my Kantele, a national instrument in Finland.  It's a diatonic 37 string instrument,  but 3 of the Gs can be made G# by little levers.

Instruments

For double bass work, I use a 3 string bass, labeled Leopold Widhalm (Nuremberg 1720) and a 4

string processional bass, probably from the

Iberian peninsula.  

 

Roger Dawson, sadly missed, made me a lovely copy of an instrument he had restored: a low bass viol in G by the Busch family of  Nuremberg (circa 1640) .

     

I  play a 7 string bass viol (after Bertrand) by Robert Foster, and a 6 string bass made by Norman Myall, after the the festooned viol in the Ashmolean museum. 

I've used a diatonic 37 string Finnish kantele from the celebrated Koistinen workshop for theatre shows.

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Six_strings125

A

B

C

D

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Copyright - Peter McCarthy 2026

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