Violectra

The violectra is a musical instrument from the stringed family .

"Violectra" is the name for an electric violin with four strings . Its pitch range is an octave below a normal violin, i.e. between viola and cello .

The Violectra was developed by the US company Barcus-Berry in the early 1960s . Jean-Luc Ponty was one of the first jazz violinists to use them, as did Michał Urbaniak and Elek Bacsik . The oldest known recording with a Violectra comes from her co-developer John Berry on an album created in 1963 for demonstration purposes. The Violectra was probably used by some studio musicians in Los Angeles before jazz musicians took over the monopoly.