Instruments
Plucked Strings
Gaven Dianda has constructed his own gittern: a broadly lute-shaped instrument with three melody strings, three drone/rhythm strings, pythagorean fretting, and a slightly 'sweetened' third. Gitterns are distinct in sound and shape from both guitars and lutes, despite an etymological relationship between gittern and guitar. Gaven also plays the citole, a related instrument with a distinctive 'holly leaf' shape. In this case, the instrument is tuned with a purer pythagorean third.
Bowed Strings
Eleanor Verrette performs on the vielle, a medieval forerunner of the violin and the viola. During the middle ages there were several variants in tuning, shape, bow style, and number of strings. Typically strung with gut strings (although Eleanor is also experimenting with horsehair) the flatter bridges lend themselves to use of 'attack' and drone, appropriate for modal repertoire. Eleanor also performs on the smaller, boat-shaped rebec.
Free-Ringing Strings
When not singing, Tricia Postle sometimes joins the ensemble on psaltery, in a number of shapes: trapezoidal, step, or 'pig-snout'. The psaltery is a variety of zither, with a huge number of variants in modern use: relatives include the arabic qanun, the autoharp, and the soundboard inside a piano.