Dave
I remember reading in one of your other posts that you build guitar-bouzoukis. Thanks for chiming in and posting pics. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the pictures was, “that looks a lot like a Sobell.” I had a good oportunity to examine a Sobell guitar-bouzouki last month at our local Celtic Festival here in town. One of the performs James Fagan, (www.kerrfagan.com) had one and we compared the two instruments (Sobell and mine) side by side. It was great to hear a good bouzouki player play my bouzouki. I still can’t play much on it. Anyway, the Sobell had a more traditional spacing like yours. To me the neck felt more like a guitar neck, while mine has a bit of mandolin feel to it. My bouzouki is 34mm wide at the nut with a string spacing of 28mm or 1 3/32” at the nut. The spacing at the bridge is 37mm or 1 15/32.” The spacing is actually taken of the middle 4 courses of strings from his 12-string guitar. Fagan and other professionals who have played it say that the neck is certainly narrow compared to there standard instruments. Yet most of them really like it and have said it is great for playing tunes. Your picking hand doesn’t have to jump as far between strings which allows for greater speed. Fagan also thought the side sound holes added a lot.
The number of frets to the body joint is an interesting issue. Most of the guitar-bouzoukis I have seen are like yours, having more than 14 frets to the body. That is where my 12-fret design seems to differ a lot from what other people are doing. I like where the bridge ends up because the of 12-fret neck. I think it really contributes to the tone. I added the cutaway to give some more access to the higher frets.
Steve
I appoligize for the poor pictures there. There were taken in a hurry. Yes, there are 2 side sound holes on this instrument. The inspiration behind trying 2 came from seeing the guitars of Allan Beardsell and Michael Greenfield. It really does make a difference having 2 instead of just one. I found that it gives an almost “stereo” effect that you don’t get with just the one port. There is lots of room for discussion about how big and where the holes should be placed, but I really like have the 2.
Mark
Scale length is an interesting issue when it comes to these instruments. After talking to a number of full time professionals and everyday players this is what I have found. Most people I have found that are interested in my bouzoukis are those who are guitar/mandolin players. They pick it up and try to play all there mandolin stuff on it. After a few minutes they begin to figure out how to play it, but do comment on the scale length. The other side is the working professional. I have been able to show it to 4 or 5 full time professional players from all over the world (Scotland, England, Ireland, Australia….). These are people who play bouzoukis, citterns, guitars, or mandolin all the time. All of these professionals picked it up and started to play it no problem. None of them even mentioned the scale length. I am a guitar player who is now trying to learn bouzouki. I don’t play mandolin but will probably take that up in the next year. Some mandolin stuff will work, but a lot of the chords and stuff will not because of the large stretches you would have to make. So I’m trying not to look at it as a giant mandolin, but rather a different instrument. Now I don’t think I would want to go much longer than 24.9” but I do not think it is to long. You get used to the length and you adjust.
Josh
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