Orion In the Wild

Great to see an Orion put on display. Tony of Australia incorporated it into his looping. Like me, I imagine many of you won’t be familiar with the stringed instruments he’s playing. Here’s what he had to say:

The stringed instrument on the top is a Japanese taishogoto, which was invented in the 1920s. The original version was a block of wood with 5 strings which were fretted by pressing down old fashioned typewriter keys which were set out like a piano keyboard. The modern electric version is pretty much the same, with typewriter keys and a sleek body.

The stringed instrument at the bottom is the Indian shahi baaja (“royal instrument”). In fact it’s the result of the Japanese taishogoto finding its way to India and being modified to be more Indian-ish.

Thanks for sharing Tony!