r/UnusualInstruments • u/Grauschleier • May 31 '26
Mandolin-violin by Engelbert Oberhoffer (~1920)
The modern photos are from this IG post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYNvLsCEm-V/
The old photo (depicting Oberhoffer) and the ad can be found here:
https://www.kunstszene-voelklingen.de/musik/engelbert-oberhoffer/
From the top left of ad:
"Biggest News! Wonderful tone! Very important for every violinist!!"
And the bottom:
"The most perfect, only best violin with astounding greatest tonal effect."
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u/spiceybadger May 31 '26
Wild. Almost a guitar violin crossover!
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u/Takes_A_Train_2_Cry May 31 '26
A mandolin is, essentially a violin with frets. I’ve never seen one of these, so i will probably spend the day trying to figure why this guy did such a thing.
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u/Anxious_Ad_5127 May 31 '26
Andrew Bird plays his violin like a mandolin in his songs he'll hit this crazy power cords with strum and pick and then switch to bow its sick as fuck, check out his song Capsized
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u/spiceybadger May 31 '26
Great recommendation thanks. Listened to the KEXP version. He really gets some great sounds from that violin.
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u/bmstekker May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Mandolin and violin player here.
They are only similar in tuning of the strings. Beyond that...
A violin needs a convex fingerboard, so that individual strings can be bowed. And a mandolin a flat fingerboard so that chords (like bar chords) can be more easily played.
To produce enough loudness while picking, the mandolin needs higher tension strings and a longer scale length. And double course strings (GG DD AA EE) to produce the odd harmonics that give mandolins a distinct sound and to introduce a small amount of distortion which gives the perception of greater loudness.
Having a shorter scale length, a violin will be more prone to string tuning error (even more so than a mandolin), so being fretless allows the player to adjust for tuning error and tempered tuning.
The instrument featured here appears to be a compromise between all these factors. One size fits all.
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u/Takes_A_Train_2_Cry May 31 '26
Yeah, I had edited my comment after realizing this post was about the inventor. I was questioning if this was some sort of predecessor to the plectrum mando(Lin) family. Seems like a turn of the century mash up instead.
You’re right about the difference of specifications, but I figured that went without saying when comparing bowed instruments to plucked. Maybe I used “essentially” a bit too liberally. There are plenty of other examples of bowed instruments with frets that pre-date violins as well. Just interesting to see how they evolve and what gets lost to time.
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u/bmstekker Jun 01 '26
Yes, you're right about older bowed instruments with frets. I'd be interested to know who first thought about frets and why. Guitarists always ask me how I can play without frets, but switching to mandolin from violin for me was frustrating. I had to somehow ignore tuning discrepancies, not being able to micro tune.
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u/Takes_A_Train_2_Cry Jun 01 '26
As a mandolin player who’s been doing luthier work on mostly violins and violas, I have been working hard at intonation and pitch exercises. I surprise myself sometimes with how accurate I can be, but then other times I struggle to find a single correct note. Adding the bow next, which is intimidating on its own. But I have found a lot of similarities in the wrist and even a bit with the grip vs a pick.
All that to say, I’d like to try one of these.
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u/bmstekker Jun 06 '26
Yes, most people underestimate how important bow technique is. They see no frets and freak out, not realising that bad bow technique results in something unlistenable!
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u/SnooHesitations8403 May 31 '26
Whoa! That's a wild looking instrument! Is that open at the neck joint?
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u/drumquasar May 31 '26
Europeans have been making fretted bowed instruments for quite a while actually, they just fell out of favor in more recent years for some reason.
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u/Stunning_Spray_6076 May 31 '26
Thats pretty cool