Placement of Rattlesnake Rattles Inside Instruments

[dan in va]

A genttleman in the Shenandoah Valley was doing some work on a bass fiddle for me, and i noticed a fiddle in his shop had a wooden patch grafted into the sound board. He explained that a mouse had enlarged the f hole and he had repaired it, thinking nobody would want a fiddle with a mouse hole in it. Well, i sure would've bought it for a fair price. Rats...i missed out on another unique instrument.

[NoNickel]

Bill did have a rattle in his mando. He talks about it on the Homespun Video with John Hartford when they discsuss his mandolin. Bill says that its for spiders or cobwebs, if I recall. But hey, a good portion of us wear our straps on the right shoulder because that's the way Bill did it. Supposedly Bill wore the strap on that side because of the cowboy hat, but I am not so sure. Early, hatless Monroe Brothers pictures have him wearing the strap on that side too.

[Bill Baldridge]

As one who wipes down my instruments with a microfiber cloth after each time I play, I have some aversion to putting dead animal parts in my mandolins, but Karl's story is good enough for me!

Dead animal parts are keeping your mandolin from falling apart.

[Bertram Henze]

Dead animal parts are keeping your mandolin from falling apart.

The strings of mine run over dead animal parts, for that matter. But since Karl's story sounds like an adaptation of St Patrick's (having removed all snakes from Ireland), and since I play ITM, I have an excuse for the vast emptiness (*) in my instrument.

* Reminds me of that "2001" quote: it's full of stars!

[Tobin]

Just received my well-played-but-new-to-me fiddle today (pre-1890 is the best guess for age). It has some serious character and mojo already, but it's going to get a rattler anyway. I need all the help I can get.

[barney 59]

Just had a conversation last night at my gig about how rattlesnakes (I live in cenrtal Texas where the ugly things are common) are learning not to rattle as such action generally leads to their heads being forcibly removed from their bodies. Might as well use the rattles for something I suppose.

Yah, they bite the rattle and roll away as a hoop!

[NoNickel]

Dead animal parts are keeping your mandolin from falling apart.

Lots of DAPs on mine: bone nut, hide glue, leather string laced between the strings, kangaroo strap, pearl buttons and abalone inlay. The rattler rump should feel right at home.

[Beanzy]

Guess it's jusst part of hisstory.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Tobin - Aren't old Violins just awesome to look at !. Many years ago,i used to visit a Violin maker who lived about 15 miles or so away from me (my girlfriend at that time played Cello) & i loved to look at the Violins he had hanging in his shop.They were all sorts of colours & showed different amounts of wear. I made a remark about one of them at one time about how distressed it looked. It looked a bit like Bill Monroe's mandolin during it's 'later phase'. The Violin maker,William Skelhorn,took it down & played it, & it's tone was utterly sublime -it's asking price wasn't so sublime = several £k's. I never thought to ask the maker's name as i'd do these days,
Ivan

[Bill Baldridge]

Tobin - Aren't old Violins just awesome to look at !. Many years ago,i used to visit a Violin maker who lived about 15 miles or so away from me (my girlfriend at that time played Cello) & i loved to look at the Violins he had hanging in his shop.They were all sorts of colours & showed different amounts of wear. I made a remark about one of them at one time about how distressed it looked. It looked a bit like Bill Monroe's mandolin during it's 'later phase'. The Violin maker,William Skelhorn,took it down & played it, & it's tone was utterly sublime -it's asking price wasn't so sublime = several £k's. I never thought to ask the maker's name as i'd do these days,
Ivan

Lucky me. I feel the same way about mandolins.

[Tobin]

Tobin - Aren't old Violins just awesome to look at !

They sure are, and I love old stuff anyway. My house is full of antiques, from furniture to decor to instruments to firearms. There's just something wonderful about old things that have a history to them which you can't find with new items. The more character and use they show, the more I like them. But yeah, this old fiddle has quite a bit of character. I'm not much of a fiddle player yet, but it has a wonderful sound to it. Compared to my new-ish student-level crappy violin, this old fiddle is light and responsive and, well, "opened up" plenty. According to the fellow I bought it from, it has quite a long history of playing old-time fiddle music in the western North Carolina area (where my Ulster-Scot ancestors originally settled when they arrived here in the early 1700s). I plan to give it more of the same, and it has the right sound for it. I think the addition of a rattlesnake tail will be just the thing for it.

[eadg145]

Dead animal parts are keeping your mandolin from falling apart.

Ooh, good point!

[Ivan Kelsall]

If there's ever an Orchestral Concert showing on UK TV,i'll watch it,as Classical Music (amongst other genres) is a real passion of mine. One of the things that really gives me a buzz,is when the TV cameras pan out over the orchestral string sections,to see the huge differences in colours,wear & styles of tailpiece etc. on instruments of the same type. On Violins,i've seen Ebony tailpieces,ones made from light coloured wood (Maple ?), & even one that seemed to have been made from Ivory which has a 'scrimshaw' style design on it. The variations of finish,wear & colour are simply amazing,& for me,the older looking & more distressed they are,the more i like them - they're just the way i look !,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

One of the things that really gives me a buzz,is when the TV cameras pan out over the orchestral string sections...

...and imagine all those snake rattles in there