The general term for a skinny fiddle with a standard vibrating string length (about 13") is pochette or pocket fiddle. These instruments are distinct from a related type of small violin, the violino piccolo, which had a short string length and was tuned higher than a true pochette. The pochette reached its pinnacle in the late 18th Century, owing partly to their widespread use by "Dancing Masters", the 18th Century equivalent of a personal trainer, who would come to people's homes (often Scots with some money, such as merchants) to teach the latest English dancing steps. This all had a lot to do with the Articles of Union when Scotland and England combined Parliaments (at the request of Scotland!) and it became fashionable to lose the heavy Lowland Scots accent (elocution coaches were also in demand) and act like Englishmen and Ladies.
Anyway, there were a lot of pochettes made in Scotland during this period. It is one of these that the Neil Gow Pochette replicates, with some modern improvements such as the position and shape of the bassbar and the use of a soundpost. These pochettes tended to be called by the English name, "kit" (as in kitten) by the English and the Scots. Their sound was brash and very LOUD for a 3 inch wide instrument.
As mentioned earlier, the playable string length is the same as a regular fiddle and their tuning is the same. The instrument is transitional between Baroque and modern instruments. For instance, the neck is angled back, but not as much as a modern instrument (earlier Baroque instruments had their necks set with no angle-back...the fingerboard was tilted back with a wedge between the neck and fingerboard).
Did Niel Gow play an instrument like this?: We don't know for sure, but historic records indicate that he was known to have played a kit and the instrument which ours replicates is of the same period during which Gow (one of the originators, the father in the opinion of many, of Scottish Highland style fiddle playing as we know it today). Thomas Jefferson, known for being President of the U.S., definitely played a pochette, very likely of this type owing to its high volume, in the pub sessions he regularly took part in in his later years.
