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… I meant guitar-bouzouki

It has been a while since I have posted pictures of my work so I thought I would put these up. I finished these instruments off a few months ago and thought people might be interested in seeing the bouzouki. About a year ago a friend of mine approached me to build him a guitar-bouzouki. I had no idea what one was or what kind of measurement you would use. So we started with a guitar shape and came of with the rest of the neck dimensions together. The instrument was a great success and I decided to build another. I changed a few things from the original design and that is what you see hear. The design still needs to be refined a bit, but it is a great instrument and a lot of fun to play.

Here is an overview of what you are looking at
Shape-OM
Wood-Cocobolo b/s, Cedar top, Brazilian appointments all around
Neck-scale 24.9, 12 frets to the body
-dual side sound ports
Machines – Gotoh steel minis
Tuning – GDAE, or a bunch of other bouzouki tunings






Since building this I have bought a copy of the Bouzouki Book which provides measurements and plans for a traditional Irish Bouzouki. The string spacing I have chosen is much tighter than a traditional bouzouki, which allows for a lot of speed and a really comfortable feel. The side ports add a lot to this instrument and I can’t say enough about the benefit of side ports in our instruments. They do wonders for the tone.


These are some pictures of a Mahogany/Sitka guitar I built. Very plain and simple, but what sound! I have not built many Mahognay instruments but now I’m hooked. This thing sounds great! I am sure I will be using Mahogany a lot in the future.





Well that is all for now. Guess I had better get back to the shop.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Josh,

That guitar bouzouki is fab!! What string spacing did you use? I love guitar-bouzoukis they make such great music. The sound ports look good - I'll have to try them out on a guitar bouzouki, I love them on guitars. The guitar looks really sweet too - I love mahogany.

Here's some pics of one I made earlier this year in Euro spruce/EIR. It's a 16 fret body join ( a la Sobell) which gives great upper fret access, and has 25.75" scale length. I play it in GDAD tuning. Pardon the picture of saddo me, but it was pictured "in action" in a full blown Irish Session!






Dave White38623.6075231481

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Fine work, fellas.
Josh, are there 2 ports on that side?
The picture is pretty dark on my screen, and it's a bit hard to see clearly.

Lovely mahog guitar!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Nice job, guys! I build bouzoukis and octave mandolins too. The ones I build are traditional teardrop shaped, though. Do either of you find that long scale hard to get around on? I used to build a 23.5 scale, but the last couple I did I used a 21.5 and it sure was easier to make the stretches between the first and fith frets, something that you need to do when playing mandolin stuff.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

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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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Josh,

James is a fantastic player and James and Nancy concerts are great - they compliment each other so well. James has played the guitar bouzoukis I have made and is very good at giving a builder constructive feedback. Scale length and string width is a moveable feast with "Irish" bouzoukis - they are relatively modern, originating in the early 70's when Andy Irvine wanted something like the Greek bouzouki (short scale length) with more volume, and Stefan Sobell made him a guitar bouzouki with a guitar like scale length. Funnily enough the bouzouki is regarded as more "traditional" than guitar in Irish music circles!! Most bouzoukis I've played have nut width of around 37-40mm. I prefer more width and made mine with 44mm spacing.

I'm not sure that the bridge position is that much different in the lower bout on yours - you do have more body volume though. However, the higher frets are used a lot on guitar/bouzoukis (probably more than on guitars) and the lower strings are used up here almost as much as the high strings. If you have seen James play, then you will have seen the chord shapes with a partial barree on the lower two strings, the 2nd string fretted one or two frets higher and the 1st string left open. This shape is used well past the 12th fret and I suspect this would be difficult to play on your guitar bouzouki. This is why the 16 fret join works so well.

The more "traditional" bouzoukis have a different sound - more nasal and cutting, and not as well rounded as in guitar bouzoukis, and also you get different sounds with the fixed and floating bridges. I prefer the sound of the guitar bouzouki but both are nice. Also the balance of the traditional designs is very different - more neck heavy.

It's difficult to find good tutorials for these instruments - if you can, get to one of the workshops that James Fagan teaches. I have a handout of chord shapes from one of these that is very good and I have put into a Word .doc file. If you are interested I could e-mail this to you if you have Word. If not I could send a copy snail mail. There is a good CD-Rom tutorial for both GDAE and GDAD tunings available here Mad For Trad

Mark,

In GDAD tuning, a lot of the mandolin stretches go away as they move to the 3rd and open positions on the top string. Plus you get a nicer modal droning sound. You can play just tunes on the bouzouki/ guitar bouzouki but it works better as a chordal accompaniment with melody fills, and an awful lot of the chords are one and two finger to get that modal open string support. I also make what I call a short scale travel bouzouki, with 605mm (23.8") scale length, tuned GDAD. This has a slacker string feel but is surprisngly loud and punchy for it's size and is ideal for "crowded sessions". Here's a pic of one I made for my good friend John Cronin in Dublin:


Dave White38624.1877083333

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=Josh H]

These are some pictures of a Mahogany/Sitka guitar I built. Very plain and simple, but what sound! I have not built many Mahognay instruments but now I’m hooked. This thing sounds great! I am sure I will be using Mahogany a lot in the future.

Josh[/QUOTE]

That's another one come over from the "Dark side"

Both you guys, Josh and Dave, they look great instruments. I've heard guitar bazoukis played a fair bit both here in the UK and in Ireland but have never played one. We tend to play more Scottish and borders music as my wife plays fiddle and Northumbrian pipes, but I must make one of those (add another to growing list), and try it. Should sound good on Shetland type music.

So, Dave expect to be barraged with questions some time!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Dave

I guess you are right about the bridge position being in about the same spot. And I will have to give some more thought to going with a different number of frets to the body. Like I said my design does need some refinement. I do have a lot more body volume than the Sobell design and I really like that. It gives a great tone which James really liked when he played it. I'm looking forward to seeing James and Nancy again next year as he told me they are planning on being back for next years festival.

If you wanted to email me that file that would be great. You can find my email on my website. I am going to have to try tuning my bouzouki in GDAD like you guys do. I found a good bouzouki chord sheet for GDAE, but I will gladly take any more info I can get.

Colin

I think one day Mahogany guitars will probably take over the world.

Josh

_________________
Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

[QUOTE=Josh H] Dave

I think one day Mahogany guitars will probably take over the world.

Josh[/QUOTE]

I like mahogany a lot too. However, I've heard rumor that it soon will end up if not in the CITES list at least supply will diminish dramatically and prices will hit the roof. Does any of you know if there's any truth to this and what the story is? Luckily I've stocked up pretty good over the years, it's apparently not in favor the way it used to be by cabinet makers over here, and there's a lumber yard in town that has a big pile that I seem to be the only one buying from!

Oh, very nice instruments guys! I don't know the first thing about bouzoukis, but these sure look sweet.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt

I have heard that same rumor, but I can't tell you anymore. I need to generate some cash and then stock up on some myself. Maybe Colin knows something about this.

Dave

I like the looks of your mini-bouzouki. I have thought about building some smaller guitar shaped instruments similar to that. I will have to give it a try as it look like fun.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

I'd heard that it will be going onto the list but not in the near future. In the mean time there are large plantations of it being grown in Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, in much the same way as EIR is grown now. The quality is usually higher than the natural forest grown wood so I think the future supply should be no problem. One of my favourite luthiers will only use this Sri Lankan wood. I can't ever see it reaching BRW prices so I shouldn't panic.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Those guitar-bouzoukis are really neat. I wonder how they'd sound with either an offset sound hole or f holes instead. It kind of reminds me of the four string tenor guitars that Frank Ford has on his site.

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Hey Josh;
I'm just now setting up my first (of a batch of 3) bouzoukis. I'm finding that although it is VERY loud when facing the soundboard, it seems quiet when playing. Did you find the same thing? Is that why you cut the side ports?
Did you use some kind of formula for establishing the size of the ports? Or did the "that looks about right" priciple prevail?
Do you like the double ports enough to do it again?
I'm seriously considering porting the next two, so the player will be able to hear the instrument easily in a room full of guitars & voices.
Did you use some kind of re-enfocing material inside the ports?
Great lookin' "gazooki" by the way!
Thanks, Daniel

I'm the lucky owner of Josh's first zouk. Walnut back and sides, cedar top, side soundport, purpleheart rosette, Schallers, clear pickguard, and ebony 'board with maple inlay. The string spacing was measured from the middle four courses of my Marc Beneteau 12 string guitar, and it seems to work very well. Having no predisposition in this matter helped, as did smallish hands.

I won't switch to GDAD from GDAE tuning simply because I like to play things the same way on mandolin and zouk. Mind you, some chord shapes are easier on either instrument, but that just gives me more options.

The only things I'll change are the tuning machines. Eventually I'll switch to regular minis from four on a plate. I should install a pickup too...eventually.

Josh did a terrific job, especially considering I'm opinionated about instruments.

Peace, Crocker.