http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2002/08/25/s...82500290400.htm

What a weird looking instrument! I wonder what it sounds like.

I don't understand....how do you play it???

I assumed they each took one side with one playing left handed, and try not to poke each other's eyes out.

The articles seem to claim it's played by one person

Bach wrote a concerto for one of those, didn't he?

I thought the guy on the right rushed home to invent it after meeting the girl on the left for the first time.

Observe the concerned expression on the face of the girl on the left.

heh bach's double violin concerto was for two SEPARATE violins hehe

I suppose they bow one "side" and the other resonates in sympathy. I remembered this yesterday when I had the opportunity to "play" a viola d'amore. It had 14 strings. 7 were in a fairly familiar position over a fingerboard and 7 ran underneath the fingerboard and bridge and just vibrated in sympathy. It was an absolute ****** to play because it was tuned in impossible intervals. A D A D F# A D. I pretty much just stuck to one string at a time with the odd one octave arpeggio on the top 4 strings!

From what I've read about it, it is supposed to have the full range from double bass to violin (not sure how) which makes me think that surely all the strings are meant to be played.

There is No Way that thing's going to play the third E below middle C.

Well that's what they claim. It appears to have no soundbox so can only assume it's electrically amplified.

No idea. Couldn't find a lot of info about it.

Maybe it was cello I seem to remember them saying 5 octaves...?

...just found this:

http://heroeswiki.com/Shenkar

"A child prodigy, born into a renowned family of musicians, Shenkar studied vocal from the age of two, violin from the age of five, and performed his first concert at the age of seven. His 1980 release, Who's To Know, and Phil Collins's solo debut, Face Value, introduced the unique sound of Shenkar's own invention, the 10 string stereophonic Double Violin, to listeners around the world. The Double Violin, designed by Shenkar and built by Ken Parker, covers the entire range of the orchestra's double bass, cello, viola and violin. The combination of Shenkar's mesmerizing vocals, double violin and also as a composer has brought him worldwide acclaim as a musical innovator."

... and then slowed down drastically to get the required pitch. Either that or the people in the pic are 80 feet tall and those strings are long and wide enough to reach the bottom E.

Possibly. I don't know - never seen one, never played one, only know what I have read and what the claims are, so am not in a position to defend it even if I wanted to.

If you think about it, a bass guitar reaches that E, and its string length is not that of a double bass, and neither is its size that of a double bass. So with modern wizardry it may be possible. I don't have the knowledge to argue it either way.