Fort Simpson (Mar 08/04) - When Nedd Kenney was at Fort Simpson's fiddle camp in February, it wasn't the fiddlers that caused him concern as much as their fiddles.

Jean Marie River's Vanessa Sanguez attended the Kole Crook Fiddle Camp in Fort Simpson during the last week of February. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

"I was seeing a lot of cracking in violins," said the Cambridge Bay fiddler.

"I could have spent the whole week doing violin repairs."

Arctic temperatures aren't the culprit -- it's the lack of anything resembling humidity.

"The extreme of the North is not the extreme of cold," said Kenney.

"They can get the same temperatures down south. It's the extreme of dryness that's hard for musical instruments."

That's why he's interested in the research of a company down in Arizona called Quintus Stringed Instruments. Quintus is developing stringed instruments made of carbon fibre, a material that doesn't react to changes in humidity.

Carbon fibres are formed in extreme heat from either polyacrylonitrile (a plastic) or a pitch made from coal or oil byproducts. Combined with epoxy or resin, it forms a composite material that can be turned into a laminate.

Carbon fibre composites are lightweight but strong and are ideal for making durable string instruments. The Arizona company is still working on finding the composite that best mimics the sound of traditional wooden instruments.

As Kenney put it, the new technology offers hope to the "climatically disadvantaged."

"It had to be addressed and it's a specific Northern issue," said Kenney.

Kenney noticed on Quintus' Web site they had only tested their violins down to -30 C.

"I called them and said 'It's -48 C on my thermometer and that's without the wind,'" said Kenney.

Field test

Kenney hopes Quintus will come to the Kitikmeot for additional testing and maybe for marketing purposes.

"We're drier than Arizona and a hell of a lot colder," he said.

During the camp, Kenney and the other instructors sat down with the parents of the Deh Cho fiddle students to talk about ways they could help their kids build on their skills.

In addition to suggestions to benefit the student, like finding a suitable practice space with no distractions, Kenney recommended trying to maintain humidity levels at home for the benefit of the instrument.

One of the other instructors at the camp, Helen Edgar, brought up some fiddle repair tools from Nova Scotia for Kenney, so he can keep his wooden violin in good repair.