Sinfonye (travel size) sporting 2 keyboards, 3 chanters,

1 trompette and 1 drone. In D/G tuning

designed in 2006 built in 2007

Seòras (Gaelic George) is my interpretation of a 13th century Sinfonye. I like experimenting though and added a second keyboard to the instrument. I settled on a 350 mm scale length. This lets me have a better choice of string types to use in such a small body. I wanted the sinfonye to be small as I was heading out and around Australia with the family for 5 months. So I crammed the two keyboards and 350 mm chanters into the small trapezoidal body. Then headed North on the trip. I had a problem in Darwin (one that wasn’t car related) where the humidity got to the laminated sassafras wheel and warped it. For the rest of the trip I had a nasty “wah wah” effect to my playing. What a way to abuse a newly born instrument. It had to cope with temperatures ranging from -5˚C to 42˚C and desert dry humidity to the soaking heat of Darwin. Still I got the machine home with the wheel warp the only damage. I didn't even get any of the Western Australian termites building a home in it. On my return I made a Sassafras and Tasmanian Myrtle veneered plywood wheel. It is working wonderfully again. I think that now it would cope with Darwin. We will have to hit the road again someday. One place I had a very nice play was in Coober Pedy South Australia (the underground opal town). We were camping in an underground campground made in one of Coober Pedys extinct opal mines. The acoustics in this cavernous underground space were second to none. Luckily we had the place to ourselves for a time. I could really crank her up.