2000s Tuvan Igil (Horsehead Fiddle)

This crazy-looking thing is a 2-string, bowed instrument from the region of Tuva. It's called an igil and is their culture's take on the more-famous Mongolian morin khuur (horsehead fiddle). I'm not sure of the tuning on this but I've tuned it up CG in the same pitch as cello's lower strings. The strings themselves are made-up of bundles of horsehair (as I recall? ...or possibly silk?) and it has a neck and body made of multiple pieces and a top/head made from skin.

It was in the shop for a reglue of the skin head and a replacement bridge -- both of which it got. I also tweaked a few setup-side things to make it simpler to keep functional. I love the sound -- breathy and mellow and lifted directly from wide-open steppes and windy valleys. Throat singing (where the singers can sing two notes at once) is common in the region and the igil is often used as accompaniment with its playing-style resembling the rhythms and sounds of horses on the move.

Did I mention I once wanted to be an ethnomusicologist? Stuff like this is the best...