"It is a distinctive kind of fiddle which sounds
especially charming in the stillness of the evening.
Above, it is strung with six gut strings of which the
lower three are covered (i.e., are wire-wound like most
modern strings), while below the fingerboard are
stretched six steel strings, which are neither plucked
nor bowed but are there merely to duplicate and prolong
the sound of the upper strings."
Leopold
Mozart
A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin
Playing
1756