When I was 15, I went a Ukulele Society meeting, and saw an old gentleman called Jim Thorogood playing Autumn Leaves on one of these and the sound was as eerie as it was bizarre. The next time I heard one was on a Temperance Seven record, and then on a Tom Waits track. I finally tracked one down from a wonderful musical instrument shop, Pamelas Music.
The phonofiddle is a one-string version of a Strohviol, which is a type of violin named after it’s German designer, Johannes Stroh. They work in the same way that old gramophones work – using an amplifying horn – but instead of being attached to the needle on the record, the horn is attached to the bridge of the instrument. They became popular in gramophone recording studios in the early part of the 20th century because they were much louder than ordinary violins (things recorded best when they were LOUD). Unfortunately, the tone wasn’t thought to be as mellow as a violin with a wooden body, and with advances in recording techniques, they fell out of use.
There have been all sorts of Stroh instruments—guitars, cellos, and even double basses—and in Romania, they have their own horn violins, which are still popularly used in folk music. The one-string Stroh phonofiddle is more of a parlour instrument and obviously has some limitations, but one-stringed instruments are really fun to play. Their limitations are their strength.
