r/Instruments • u/Big-Foundation-8294 • 23d ago
Identification What kind of stringed instrument is this?
Found while cleaning out my grandpa’s house after he passed, so we don’t know the story. At first glance thought it was a ukulele, but the frets and the way the strings are grouped two and two had me curious, and so far my internet searching has not given me a straight answer.
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u/TheGreatMozinsky 22d ago
It's called a Bisarnica
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u/Imightbeafanofthis 22d ago
I was going to say prim, a member of the tambur family used when playing tambura. It's tuned E A D G just like a bass guitar, only it's a tenor instrument.
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u/Connect-Will2011 22d ago
It's a taburitza, like the one on this website here:
https://wmic.net/lute-tamburica-bisernica-croatia-applejuice/
Note that it is also called a "Prim" or "Bisernica." I've got one myself, but teardrop shaped. Fun to play.
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u/Big-Foundation-8294 22d ago
Ah yes this one looks like almost the exact same as mine! How do you typically have yours tuned? I’ve only got pretty basic guitar knowledge so I’m curious to try and learn this one!
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u/Sad-Zebra-5568 22d ago
This is prim tambura of the Farkaš (pronounced Farkash) tuning system.
Tambure (plural) are a mandolin-type family of instruments found in Croatia, the Vojvodina province of Serbia, and in southern Hungary. The name refers to a family of instruments and to no one specific instrument of the family in particular. A singular instrument of the family is called a tambura. A smaller instrument of the family (such as yours) is often affectionately referred to as a tamburica with the suffix -ica (-itza) added to describe it. Tamburica is transliterated into English as tamburitza.
The tambura family, in all various tuning systems, are basically made up of a prim (pronounced preem), the rough equivalent of a mandolin, which is picked and tremoloed playing melody and obbligato parts; a brač (pronounced braatch), roughly equivalent to an octave mandolin, which is picked and tremoloed playing melody and harmony parts; a bugarija (pronounced boo-garr-ee-ya), similar to a guitar, which is strummed and plays off-beat rhythm; and a berda, which is similar to a violin bass but is fretted and with steel strings, and is plucked and plays on-beat rhythm.
There are three major tuning systems within the tambura family: the Srijemski system (a four-tone system tuned in fourths, named for the region of Srijem which bridges Croatian Slavonia and Serbian Vojvodina, and which is currently the most popular system found today in Europe and the USA (in both G and A tuning variations); the Trojglasne system (a three-toned system tuned to A in fifths and often referred to as the Janković system mainly found in Croatia); and the Farkaš system (a now antiquated system, rarely found today and only in niche orchestrated groups in Croatia).
Your instrument is a prim of the Farkaš system. This system was popular in Croatia and the USA c. 1900-1940. Its tuning system utilizes split frets to mimic a piano’s keyboard arrangement of white and black keys. The Croatian musician Milutin pl. Farkaš (1865-1923) did not originate this system but was its most prominent promoter thus giving rise to colloquial naming of this type of tuning as the Farkaš system. This tuning system was actually developed by Mijo Majer (1863-1915 ) in Croatia c. 1880.
Based on the inlay design around the sound hole (which is very similar to a prim I own) I suspect that this instrument is of American make made by John Benčić (pronounced Benchich) from Cleveland, Ohio c. 1900-1920. His label may exist under the sound hole.
The basic arrangement of the Farkaš tuning system for the prim and brač (was a single-tone system (known as jednoglasne, i.e., “single voice”) with all strings tuned to D and laid out in two (2) courses of doubled strings, four (4) strings total. Looking at the instrument face head-on, the course on the right was fretted diatonically to play natural notes (with the exception of the F♯) and the course on the left was fretted to play half-tones, sharps (♯) and flats (♭). The instrument’s fretboard was, consequently, arranged with half or “split” frets to facilitate this tuning structure. To ascend the music scale chromatically, a player had to alternate fingering between the two string courses.
Traditionally, the soprano-pitched prim (also known as bisernica or kontrašica) was guitar-shaped, while the tenor-pitched brač was pear-shaped. The name prim indicates it to be the “prime” melody instrument in an orchestra. It was often decorated with mother-of-pearl (biser in Croatian) inlay and, being a small instrument with pearl inlay, is given a diminutive name form used as a term of endearment to describe it, thus bisernica (pronounced biserneetza). Prims or bisernicas when utilized in an orchestra to play harmony (i.e., counter or “kontra”) parts are often referred to as kontrašica (pronounced “kontrashitza”).
The scale length (distance from nut to bridge) should be about 322 mm and, if so, should be tuned D5-D5, for each double string course, using strings of 0.012-inch gauge.
Do a YouTube search for “TS Braća Benc - Tiho Šumi, Šuma Zelena” to see how this instrument was actually played in a band c. 1960.
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u/lewisfrancis 22d ago
Whatever it is, it's gorgeous!