Weight matters
Isn’t a viola already heavy enough??!
One of my dearest friends is a webdesigner and amator musician, he plays electric guitar.
We are very close, yet we write each other every now and then, sometimes years can pass between one chat and the other. The other day, one of those chats. How are you doing, how’s the family, and hey! Have a look at our new website! (By the way, it’s still a work in progress, but you can have a look as well. It’s in Italian by now but google translator does a great job).
Silence.
Uhm… could I give you a first feedback? I admit I red it as someone thinking that holding a cello on the shoulder is a wierd thing to do, and I am sure I am not the only one… and I was looking for the weight, but there’s no indication anywhere!
Ok, so let’s go and weight it. And also add some comparison, just for good measure.
We can’t be grams precise, it would make no sense.
Here are some measures:
Violin, with shoulder-rest and chin rest: 500 gr (1.10 pound)
Viola (16.77 inches, 42,6 cm), with shoulder-rest and chin rest: 730 gr. (1.60 pound)
Violoncello da spalla (with leather strap attached): 1 kg (2.20 pounds)
Ukulele banjo Maxitone: 1.300 gr (almost 3 pounds)
Ukulele banjo Dixie: 1 kg (2.20 pounds)
Ukulele banjo Keetch: 940 gr (2 pounds)
Resophonic concert Ukulele: 1.340 gr (3 pounds)
I play de uke very rarely, but I love Tin Pan Alley. I once run an ukulele brand, shop and distributor, and I always end up doing a bit of research in what I do. So I ended up buying some instruments that left a mark in the history of ukulele.
Deering Banjo Goodtime (open back): 2 kilos (4.40 pounds, this is one of the lightest five strings banjoes on the market)
Electric guitar: from 3,2 up to 5 kilos. (7 to 11 pounds)
Alto saxophone: 2.400 gr (more than 5 pounds: my hardest neck pain was after a five hours parade at the Nice flowers carnival, when I was 15. They say at 15 you can bear anything… well there’s a limit!)
-I converted in pounds with google to make it more immediate for some readers, but please, don’t ask me to convert also the ounces, it’s impossible for me!!-
Sousaphone: from 8 to 23 kilos (18 to 50 pounds)
So, Violoncello da Spalla is probably the lightest instrument played with a strap, as you shouldn’t need a strap to play a banjo-uke (George Formby did without and so do the serious ones). And Violoncello da Spalla is far more comfortable than a big viola with shoulder rest.
You can also try to play it without a strap, I guess they did it.
Further readings:
Updates from our workshop
I spent a great part of the week preparing my talk for the Women in Lutherie Conference. Making new slides, recording, editing, it always takes up a big amount of time. I could just trim the corners and clean up the ribs this week. Alessandro instead has almost finished with carving the back.
Featured video of the week
As we mentioned last week Sergey Malov won a prize at the Opus Classic Awards, at this video his performance at the awards gala.
