The contraguitar or Schrammel guitar is a type of
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
developed in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
in the mid-nineteenth century. In addition to the usual guitar neck with six strings and a fretboard, it has a second, fretless neck with up to nine bass strings. Customarily these additional strings are tuned from E-flat downwards. The lowest string on the 15-string contraguitar is usually tuned to G.
Viennese instrument maker
Johann Gottfried Scherzer developed the instrument after 1848, improving on earlier, unfinished efforts by
Johann Georg Stauffer
Johann Georg Stauffer (also Johann Georg Staufer; born January 26, 1778 in Vienna; died 24 January 1853) was an Austrian luthier and the most important Viennese luthier of his time.
Life
Stauffer was born in the Viennese suburb of Weißgerber ...
(17781853), the master from whom Scherzer had learned his craft.
The contraguitar is heard almost exclusively in Viennese folk music, especially
Schrammelmusik Schrammelmusik () is a style of Vienna, Viennese folk music originating in the late nineteenth century and still performed in present-day Austria. The style is named for the prolific folk composers Johann and Josef Schrammel.
The Schrammel brothers ...
. Occasionally it is also used in Alpine folk music.
References
Bibliography
"Die Kontragitarre in Wien"(diploma thesis) by Reinhard Kopschar
''Stauffer & Co.: The Viennese guitar of the 19th Century''(book & CD) by Erik Pierre Hofmann, Pascal Mougin, and Stefan Hackl. {{ISBN, 9782953886801
See also
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Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
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Combolin
The Combolin was invented by Roy Williamson of The Corries in the summer of 1969. The combolin combined several instruments into a single instrument. One combined a mandolin and a guitar (along with four bass strings operated with slides), the oth ...
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Harp guitar
The harp guitar is a guitar-based stringed instrument generally defined as a "guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." The word "harp" is used in reference to ...
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Multi-neck guitar
A multi-neck guitar is a guitar that has multiple fingerboard necks. They exist in both electric and acoustic versions. Although multi-neck guitars are quite common today, they are not a modern invention. Examples of multi-neck guitars and lute ...
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Schrammelmusik Schrammelmusik () is a style of Vienna, Viennese folk music originating in the late nineteenth century and still performed in present-day Austria. The style is named for the prolific folk composers Johann and Josef Schrammel.
The Schrammel brothers ...
Guitar family instruments