Box and Fiddle
Year 20 No 05
February 1997
Metal Fiddle Tradition of Donegal
by Dr Kevin McCann
The modern violin is considered to have been introduced to the musical community in Ireland during the 17th century. It is typically referred to as the fiddle amongst traditional music enthusiasts.
This name no doubt belies its links with older, bowed instruments used in Ireland. Accompanying the rapid growth in the popularity of the modern timber fiddle were attempts to build copies of that instrument.
By the middle of the 19th century the fiddle was firmly established as one of the most important, if not the prime instrument, for playing traditional Irish music.
During this period some masters of itinerant craftsman families also comprised the most respected of fiddlers in Donegal. Those families typically made a combined living as professional fiddlers and highly skilled journeymen whitesmiths who also produced tin fiddles.
Most noted amongst these were brothers Alec and Mickey McConnell from Ardara, as well as Michael (often Mict Mor, or an Dochartach Mor – Big Mickey or Big Doherty) Doherty and eventually his sons Charlie, Hughie and Simon. The last instrument from the family was Hughie’s son, the late Simon (Stranorlar) Doherty.
The above players comprised some of the most talented fiddlers Donegal has ever known. Their reputations as magnificent players are still commonly noted amongst current practitioners in the county. Based on fiddle and commercial recordings the fame of John, Mickey and Simon Doherty has spread much further.
It is not certain when first attempts were made, but their intense familiarity with the fiddle eventually led them to direct their whitesmithing talent to construct fiddles from tin plate. The results of their efforts are testimony to their masterful skills.
Thie instruments soon became noted among the musical community and tin fiddles were highly sought-after items. Their popularity eventually inspired non-craftsmen, though fiddlers all the same, to make similar instruments.
The latter usually had a significant knowledge of the fiddle through their own playing. The best example from this group of makers is the brass fiddle crafted by Frank and Paddy Cassidy and described below.
The single surviving account we have on the construction of metal fiddles from a maker is by Simon Doherty in ‘The Northern Fiddler’. In this account he stresses the similarity with the making of timber instruments. The tools used by the whitesmiths to make an instrument were few. They included a scribe, a right and a left gilbow snip (though the job could be done with one or the other) for cutting the plate, a shaping bag (a sand-filled leather bag about half the size of a pillow), a tin man’s anvil and spike heads, a planishing hammer for shaping and tapping current surfaces, a stretching hammer and a soldering iron.
The back and the belly would be cut out of the plate to the size and shape of the modern instrument with a 5mm flange left all round. The arch of the back and belly could be easily started by gently pressing a timber instrument into the shaping bag.
This formed a mould into which the plate was tapped. Following this, the back and belly, would be finished off by tapping out using different spike heads on the tin man’s anvil. Using the diameter of an old penny for measurement, which corresponded closely to the normal height of the sides of the fiddle, the sides were cut in strips to the normal height with an approximate 2mm flange left on the top and bottom.
The latter flanges would be turned over to a right angle while the strips were held straight. At this point, the cured shapes of the sides were then formed by stretching or shortening the flanges. This was the most difficult part of the construction as shortening a flange in particular results in crinkling of the tin plate. It took tremendous skill to bend the C bouts without crinkling the flanges and yet in the extract examples there is very little evidence of crinkling, paying testimony to the superior craftsmanship of the makers.
The side strips were commonly cut in five strips. These were made up of two C bouts, a long single strip below the C bouts (or as referred to by older players – the hips of the fiddle) and two strips above the C bouts (or the shoulders). Where tin plate was short, strips were cut out of whatever lengths existed and interlocking mechanical joints connected the strips.
At this point the sides were set into the belly of the fiddle and the flange of the belly was folded over the flanges of the sides. Solder and flux were inserted into the joint and the whole sealed with a soldering iron. The tinler neck of the fiddle was then inserted. A small rivet through the top of the fiddle added strength at this point.
Furthermore, a strip of tin was wrapped around the base of the neck and soldered onto the sides. The neck was then riveted from both sides through this cup-like strip. In some cases, the neck was further secured to the belly and built around the block of the neck, through which the neck was again riveted.
According to folk memory, Necks from damaged timber fiddles were typically used to complete tin fiddles. It is significant to note however, that on each of the extant instruments the necks and pegs were made by the whitesmith who made the body.
A tin base bar was soldered on to the belly in the normal position. The F holes, or the S holes as they are sometimes called, were made by a technique called ‘chiselling’. The patterns would be marked out on the belly using a scribe. At the top of the pattern a small hole would be drilled and the F hole shape cut out using sharpened files. In some circumstances where the quality of appearance of the fiddle was not important to the customer, or if the time allowed for making was very short, F holes were not chiselled but two round holes on either side of the bridge were drilled.
The belly was then attached by folding its flange over the flange of the upper surface of the sides. Just before closing this joint, solder and flux were inserted and the joint was sealed by tapping fully closed and running a hot iron over the outer surface of the joint. The nut was made by forming a loop with a short piece of wire and soldering only the base of the loop into place. The top of the loop was then bent downwards to form a lip to which the tailpiece could be attached. To finish, a sound post was inserted. In the end, the joints over the entire instrument would be inspected and either tapped or filed to ensure joints were secure and no sharp surfaces remained.
The fiddle were made from whatever tin plate was available. This could be from old cans etc., though shop-bough tin plate was considered ideal. The thickness of the plate varied with 30-gauge appearing to be the most common, though some fiddles were made using plate as thin as 18-gauge.
The latter are so thin that both the back and the belly can be easily flexed by pressing with the hand, yet they stand up to the pressures of being tuned to concert pitch.
The weakest part of these is the fixing of the neck so that the fingerboards almost rest on the belly but the necks are still quite strongly anchored in place by the riveted box structures. Where downward warping of the fingerboard occurred the player or the maker often made adjustments by shaving down the height of the bridge to bring the string action in line with timber instruments.
Traditional players commonly played flat handed i.e. they rested the base of their wrist onto the back of the fiddle as opposed to arching out and away from the fiddle in the classical hold. The thin flange formed by the join of the back and the sides could easily irritate or dig into the wrist.
To counter this, the flange at this point was sometimes rolled around a piece of wire and soldered to make it a smooth, rounded surface which did not press sharply into the wrist. Lastly, it should be remembered that tin plate is sandwich-like in manufacture. It has an iron core which is thinly coated on both sides with tin.
With time, the tin coating eventually wears, exposing the iron core. When this happens the instrument will continually rust. As such, tin fiddles have a limited lifetime of approximately 100 years, if not otherwise protected.
‘Uses and Advantages of the Metal Fiddle’ will be published in the next edition. Does any reader have recollections of such fiddles? Please let m know if any are still in existence.
Uses and Advantages
The clearest advantage of tin fiddles within the community in which they circulated was their low cost. The basic construction materials were extremely cheap and readily obtainable. Where a neck from a timber fiddle was already available to be added, the construction time was minimal, thus potential buyers could be offered a virtual on-site immediate supply. The notes compiled to accompany recordings of Mickey Doherty describe how Mickey was able to make a fiddle for raffle at the end of an evening card playing.
As the tin fiddles were generally made in the same shape and dimensions as a standard full- sized timber fiddle, they could be used for the exact same purpose as the latter. Though they were played for normal performances such as house dances, their muted volume did restrict their regular use for this purpose, typically demanding playing by duets or larger combinations of fiddlers. Tin fiddles were also used by players to practice and play in their houses. In this setting, they did show some noteworthy advantages over their more popular wooden counterparts.
The cottages in which traditional fiddle music was played were typically very small, often o more than three rooms. Families were large by current standards. Prior to the aspect and wide circulation of modern mutes Donegal fiddlers made several attempts to reduce the volume of their wooden instruments to permit practicing without disturbing the sleep of children in such tight quarters. Jimmy Lyons of Tealing, commonly practiced with clothes pegs wedged into his bridge.
The low volume of tin fiddles was seen as an actual decibel advantage over timber fiddles for evening practising in cottages. There were no complications as regards cutting down the sound output of the instrument and fiddlers were generally of the opinion that tin fiddles were sweet in tone.
Another point relates to children in musical houses. As fiddling was a common social pursuit in the past, children often aspired to playing. When a parent had what was considered a decent instrument its safety in the hands of children could not be assured. A small bit of rough handling often resulted in broken necks and cracks. As luthiers (skilled instrument repairers) were not know in Donegal, damage such as this typically resulted in the instrument being repaired (badly as a rule) by the local handyman or alternatively scrapped altogether with usable parts salvaged. Tin fiddles, on the other hand, were seen as ideal instruments for children. If damage was inflicted the fiddle could be tapped back into shape by even the most unskilled of persons. There are about two dozen tin fiddles in various states of repair still intact in various parts of Donegal, and a few are still playable. The last fiddle to have been made within the fiddling whitesmith fraternity of Donegal was made by Simon in 1984. It is still playable.
I wonder whether tin fiddles were ever made and played in Scotland? I’d guess that there were some made and played by the Scottish ‘travelling people’ in the past. Any information about this would be appreciated.
by Dr Kevin McCann
The modern violin is considered to have been introduced to the musical community in Ireland during the 17th century. It is typically referred to as the fiddle amongst traditional music enthusiasts.
This name no doubt belies its links with older, bowed instruments used in Ireland. Accompanying the rapid growth in the popularity of the modern timber fiddle were attempts to build copies of that instrument.
By the middle of the 19th century the fiddle was firmly established as one of the most important, if not the prime instrument, for playing traditional Irish music.
During this period some masters of itinerant craftsman families also comprised the most respected of fiddlers in Donegal. Those families typically made a combined living as professional fiddlers and highly skilled journeymen whitesmiths who also produced tin fiddles.
Most noted amongst these were brothers Alec and Mickey McConnell from Ardara, as well as Michael (often Mict Mor, or an Dochartach Mor – Big Mickey or Big Doherty) Doherty and eventually his sons Charlie, Hughie and Simon. The last instrument from the family was Hughie’s son, the late Simon (Stranorlar) Doherty.
The above players comprised some of the most talented fiddlers Donegal has ever known. Their reputations as magnificent players are still commonly noted amongst current practitioners in the county. Based on fiddle and commercial recordings the fame of John, Mickey and Simon Doherty has spread much further.
It is not certain when first attempts were made, but their intense familiarity with the fiddle eventually led them to direct their whitesmithing talent to construct fiddles from tin plate. The results of their efforts are testimony to their masterful skills.
Thie instruments soon became noted among the musical community and tin fiddles were highly sought-after items. Their popularity eventually inspired non-craftsmen, though fiddlers all the same, to make similar instruments.
The latter usually had a significant knowledge of the fiddle through their own playing. The best example from this group of makers is the brass fiddle crafted by Frank and Paddy Cassidy and described below.
The single surviving account we have on the construction of metal fiddles from a maker is by Simon Doherty in ‘The Northern Fiddler’. In this account he stresses the similarity with the making of timber instruments. The tools used by the whitesmiths to make an instrument were few. They included a scribe, a right and a left gilbow snip (though the job could be done with one or the other) for cutting the plate, a shaping bag (a sand-filled leather bag about half the size of a pillow), a tin man’s anvil and spike heads, a planishing hammer for shaping and tapping current surfaces, a stretching hammer and a soldering iron.
The back and the belly would be cut out of the plate to the size and shape of the modern instrument with a 5mm flange left all round. The arch of the back and belly could be easily started by gently pressing a timber instrument into the shaping bag.
This formed a mould into which the plate was tapped. Following this, the back and belly, would be finished off by tapping out using different spike heads on the tin man’s anvil. Using the diameter of an old penny for measurement, which corresponded closely to the normal height of the sides of the fiddle, the sides were cut in strips to the normal height with an approximate 2mm flange left on the top and bottom.
The latter flanges would be turned over to a right angle while the strips were held straight. At this point, the cured shapes of the sides were then formed by stretching or shortening the flanges. This was the most difficult part of the construction as shortening a flange in particular results in crinkling of the tin plate. It took tremendous skill to bend the C bouts without crinkling the flanges and yet in the extract examples there is very little evidence of crinkling, paying testimony to the superior craftsmanship of the makers.
The side strips were commonly cut in five strips. These were made up of two C bouts, a long single strip below the C bouts (or as referred to by older players – the hips of the fiddle) and two strips above the C bouts (or the shoulders). Where tin plate was short, strips were cut out of whatever lengths existed and interlocking mechanical joints connected the strips.
At this point the sides were set into the belly of the fiddle and the flange of the belly was folded over the flanges of the sides. Solder and flux were inserted into the joint and the whole sealed with a soldering iron. The tinler neck of the fiddle was then inserted. A small rivet through the top of the fiddle added strength at this point.
Furthermore, a strip of tin was wrapped around the base of the neck and soldered onto the sides. The neck was then riveted from both sides through this cup-like strip. In some cases, the neck was further secured to the belly and built around the block of the neck, through which the neck was again riveted.
According to folk memory, Necks from damaged timber fiddles were typically used to complete tin fiddles. It is significant to note however, that on each of the extant instruments the necks and pegs were made by the whitesmith who made the body.
A tin base bar was soldered on to the belly in the normal position. The F holes, or the S holes as they are sometimes called, were made by a technique called ‘chiselling’. The patterns would be marked out on the belly using a scribe. At the top of the pattern a small hole would be drilled and the F hole shape cut out using sharpened files. In some circumstances where the quality of appearance of the fiddle was not important to the customer, or if the time allowed for making was very short, F holes were not chiselled but two round holes on either side of the bridge were drilled.
The belly was then attached by folding its flange over the flange of the upper surface of the sides. Just before closing this joint, solder and flux were inserted and the joint was sealed by tapping fully closed and running a hot iron over the outer surface of the joint. The nut was made by forming a loop with a short piece of wire and soldering only the base of the loop into place. The top of the loop was then bent downwards to form a lip to which the tailpiece could be attached. To finish, a sound post was inserted. In the end, the joints over the entire instrument would be inspected and either tapped or filed to ensure joints were secure and no sharp surfaces remained.
The fiddle were made from whatever tin plate was available. This could be from old cans etc., though shop-bough tin plate was considered ideal. The thickness of the plate varied with 30-gauge appearing to be the most common, though some fiddles were made using plate as thin as 18-gauge.
The latter are so thin that both the back and the belly can be easily flexed by pressing with the hand, yet they stand up to the pressures of being tuned to concert pitch.
The weakest part of these is the fixing of the neck so that the fingerboards almost rest on the belly but the necks are still quite strongly anchored in place by the riveted box structures. Where downward warping of the fingerboard occurred the player or the maker often made adjustments by shaving down the height of the bridge to bring the string action in line with timber instruments.
Traditional players commonly played flat handed i.e. they rested the base of their wrist onto the back of the fiddle as opposed to arching out and away from the fiddle in the classical hold. The thin flange formed by the join of the back and the sides could easily irritate or dig into the wrist.
To counter this, the flange at this point was sometimes rolled around a piece of wire and soldered to make it a smooth, rounded surface which did not press sharply into the wrist. Lastly, it should be remembered that tin plate is sandwich-like in manufacture. It has an iron core which is thinly coated on both sides with tin.
With time, the tin coating eventually wears, exposing the iron core. When this happens the instrument will continually rust. As such, tin fiddles have a limited lifetime of approximately 100 years, if not otherwise protected.
‘Uses and Advantages of the Metal Fiddle’ will be published in the next edition. Does any reader have recollections of such fiddles? Please let m know if any are still in existence.
Uses and Advantages
The clearest advantage of tin fiddles within the community in which they circulated was their low cost. The basic construction materials were extremely cheap and readily obtainable. Where a neck from a timber fiddle was already available to be added, the construction time was minimal, thus potential buyers could be offered a virtual on-site immediate supply. The notes compiled to accompany recordings of Mickey Doherty describe how Mickey was able to make a fiddle for raffle at the end of an evening card playing.
As the tin fiddles were generally made in the same shape and dimensions as a standard full- sized timber fiddle, they could be used for the exact same purpose as the latter. Though they were played for normal performances such as house dances, their muted volume did restrict their regular use for this purpose, typically demanding playing by duets or larger combinations of fiddlers. Tin fiddles were also used by players to practice and play in their houses. In this setting, they did show some noteworthy advantages over their more popular wooden counterparts.
The cottages in which traditional fiddle music was played were typically very small, often o more than three rooms. Families were large by current standards. Prior to the aspect and wide circulation of modern mutes Donegal fiddlers made several attempts to reduce the volume of their wooden instruments to permit practicing without disturbing the sleep of children in such tight quarters. Jimmy Lyons of Tealing, commonly practiced with clothes pegs wedged into his bridge.
The low volume of tin fiddles was seen as an actual decibel advantage over timber fiddles for evening practising in cottages. There were no complications as regards cutting down the sound output of the instrument and fiddlers were generally of the opinion that tin fiddles were sweet in tone.
Another point relates to children in musical houses. As fiddling was a common social pursuit in the past, children often aspired to playing. When a parent had what was considered a decent instrument its safety in the hands of children could not be assured. A small bit of rough handling often resulted in broken necks and cracks. As luthiers (skilled instrument repairers) were not know in Donegal, damage such as this typically resulted in the instrument being repaired (badly as a rule) by the local handyman or alternatively scrapped altogether with usable parts salvaged. Tin fiddles, on the other hand, were seen as ideal instruments for children. If damage was inflicted the fiddle could be tapped back into shape by even the most unskilled of persons. There are about two dozen tin fiddles in various states of repair still intact in various parts of Donegal, and a few are still playable. The last fiddle to have been made within the fiddling whitesmith fraternity of Donegal was made by Simon in 1984. It is still playable.
I wonder whether tin fiddles were ever made and played in Scotland? I’d guess that there were some made and played by the Scottish ‘travelling people’ in the past. Any information about this would be appreciated.