The bluegrass fiddler Vassar Clements plays an unusual violin. Instead of the traditional curly shape on the peghead, it has the carved head of a bearded man.
http://www.vassarclements.com/cdcat/vpcd14.html
He says the fiddle was given to him by John Hartford, and one of the stories he’s heard is that it’s one of a set of 12, one for each of the Disciples.
Have you seen any others like it? I saw a picture of one in the Indianapolis Star a few months back, but it may have been Vassar’s.
I’m a guitarist and I study guitar organology, and there are many, many examples of mediaeval citoles with dragons’ heads on the headstock; the British Library ms Royal 2Bvii is loaded with wee drawings of beasts and grotesques playing them – in my favourite, the little dragon not only appears to be smiling, but also to be sporting Ray-bans.
The only surviving example of a citole (also sometimes called a ‘hipped guitar’ is in the British Museum
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/resources/image/large/ps338853.jpg
This particular instrument has been a pet project (no pun intended!) of mine for a few years now, and I have played with it, and will be working on a project with in in the Museum, with luck, next summer. (It’s called the Royal Giterne; it looks like a violin because back in the 16th century when violins were invented, and the new cool thing, someone tore off the original soundboard, replaced it with a violin face, and gave the Earl of Leceister to give to Queen Elizabeth I)
It is also common to find citterns with ladies’ heads carved onto the headstock, too; there are many beautiful examples that survive from the 18th centuries onwards.
This lady is playing a cittern
http://www.arsmusicachicago.org/images/Woman%20with%20a%20Cittern.jpg
I can’t tell what’s carved on the headstock, but usually it would be a very detailed woman’s face.
Here’s an actual instrument from 1726 with a head carved on it
http://www.earlycittern.com/old/cittern6/side.jpg
Neat stuff!
Gregory McQueen, the fiddle player from the late, great Celtic band Clandestine has a fiddle with what appears to be Beethoven’s head carved into the peghead. It always amuses me that Greg plays his brilliant Scottish fiddle while a great Classical composer glares at him from the other end of the instrument…
In a magazine… maybe Fine Woodworking, I’m really not sure… there was a picture of a contrebass with a lion’s head for its scroll. Awesome!
Kilt Wearin’ Man, I plodded through 7 pages of Google hits, and I saw many pix of Gregory McQueen. Only one (live at the Duck) showed a fiddle with a man’s head on the peghead, and that was from too far away too see anything. Can you steer me to a better picture?
I’m afraid I can’t - Clandestine’s website is no more, and that was the best source I was aware of for pix.
Oh, darn. Has anyone else seen a violin with a man’s head on the peghead?
I have just been holding a violin that belonged to my great aunt who played for the Sydney symphony orchestra around the 1920’s or 30’s the violin is dated mid 1800’s it has a carved head of beethoven on it