While adjusting his Hurdy Gurdy one day, Jon Jones of Southeast Missouri thought it would be nice to be able to select which string came into contact with the wheel, and also have lots and lots of strings!

After about a year and a half of working out the idea in his head, he found out about the Geigenwerk, which is very similar in principal, though the construction is quite a bit different. Jon stuck with his original design, because of all the planning he put into it, and like most creative experimenters, he just HAD to see if it worked.

The wheelharp consists of two tubular sound chambers, with a large circular bow set between them. The 60 strings and keys are arranged in a radial fashion around the wheel.

The nylon string is bowed when a tangent attached
to a key pushes it into the wheel, which is turned by a foot operated treadle and flywheel.

Tremolo effects can be obtained by slightly bouncing the key as it's played. Though he plans on a lot more experimentation, it clearly shows that there is still a lot of potential in bowed keyboard instruments.

Listen to a short sample of the Wheelharp