Are There 5-String Violas?

[@8Phoenix8]

VIOLA GANG!!! 😀

[@Grandudchesstatianna]

Yes!

[@Desmuu]

I've never played violin or viola. But a 5-String seems the most appealing to me. I come from 7/8 string guitars.

[@NaxNestoris]

i like that you mention the violin is a small viola! given that the modern viola was made before it lmao

[@NaxNestoris]

and violin means small viola in Italian lmfao

[@badpiggies988]

I did not know that! I’ll bet the few violinists who unironically hate violas never mention that lol.

[@badpiggies988]

Violas with an E5 string added actually used to be quite popular among viola soloists who wanted to play violin parts with a warmer tone and more sustain back in the 1700s; some composers even wrote viola solos that are impossible without both a low C AND a high E (and violins with a C3 string tend to sound a bit buzzy, the bridge cable of a string needs a bigger instrument for the best results). I don’t own one since even the ones made in this century (and their bridges) are hella expensive and I almost get a panic attack whenever I have to replace or tighten my A string, never mind the often crazy-expensive, custom-made E strings that these things need.

[@eshaneogy]

Those solos from the 1700s might have been for the viola da gamba, a different set of instruments altogether which has 6 strings (sometimes 5 or 7) and frets and is tuned almost like a guitar. "Viola" used to be a more general name for stringed instrument and "gamba" means "leg" in Italian. An earlier name of the violin and the viola we know today was viola da braccio or viola of the arm. Have fun searching for the viola da gamba, also called viol!

[@saucysos]

Now, why do you find Violists waiting outside the store?

[@CheukTheGreatestOfEverything]

I just call it (Violin-viola hybrid)

[@elrond3221]

what size red viola?

[@ElectricViolinShop]

16” iirc