5 String Violins

“I first played my 5-string violin at a festival and immediately fell in love with it. The string spacing and instrument length means it's effortless to move between a 4-string and 5-string instrument - it's ever so slightly longer than a normal fiddle, wider in the hips and a bit deeper but so cleverly done that I just don't notice the difference. Rod's design gives a beautiful, plummy tone in the middle and somehow manages to play just like a normal fiddle despite the extra string: I haven't noticed any loss of agility to keep up with full-throttle Irish tunes. The extra notes at the bottom are handy to sometimes play an octave lower in traditional music sessions, thickening the sound when players are few, or to underpin songs with a lower pitch  accompaniment. Possibly the best thing I have ever bought!”

Aidan O’Hare

“I am the proud Owner of Rod Ward's Five String violin ,  violin no. 129. 

I’ve never before bought :

1. a newly made violin. I wrongly believed that violins take decades to play in. This now sounds great already (I’m sure it will sound even better decades later, though I’ll never know that…)

2. an acoustic 5-String violin. I also wrongly believed that the low C string on a violin would always sound weak compared to the others.

A moment’s thought and you realise that it all depends on how well it is designed and constructed . This violin is absolutely top-of-the-milk and playing it gives me welcome delusions of adequacy.

Stuart Hall, Assistant Deputy Head of Jazz,  Guildhall school of Music and Drama