View Full Version : CBOM with a Virzi?
Goodin
Nov-13-2009, 7:08am
Has anyone ever heard of a CBOM built with a Virzi?
Gerry Cassidy
Nov-13-2009, 7:56am
My old Rozawood OM had one. The OM in the pic got lost in the mail (Czech republic mail system...scary!) when he was sending it back to me after repairs. I have a new one due in a couple weeks.
The Czech luthiers are really into Loyd Loar design and I guess Mr. Loar put them in a few of his models and they do it because of this. That's what Roman told me, anyway.
You can see a small portion of it in the left side of the sound hole.
Lloyd Loar's own mandoviola (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?65) 10-string has one. I've seen just one "big one" in an L5, though it was also the first and only L5 I ever tried so hard to say the effect on a big instrument.
http://www.mandolinarchive.com/images/70321_mandoviola_momi_montage.jpg
Goodin
Nov-13-2009, 12:26pm
Wow, Dan thanks for sharing that! I'm still trying to wrap my head around this...is it like a mandola/mandolin hybrid tuned CGDAE? Any chance of hearing a recording of this instrument?
Hey arcopizz - your OM looks like a nice one. I thought it was an SOS as at first.
I am having Lawrence Nyberg build me a short scale cittern. Just kicking around the idea of what it would sound like with a Virzi. A short scale cittern (20 inch) is quite a radical design to begin with, so why not add a virzi!
Wow, Dan thanks for sharing that! I'm still trying to wrap my head around this...is it like a mandola/mandolin hybrid tuned CGDAE? Any chance of hearing a recording of this instrument?
From Roger Siminoff: Scale length is 15 5/8". Tuning was ADGCF, but Loar was known to play it in various unusual tunings.
Presumably the F is the low note..
Goodin
Nov-13-2009, 2:17pm
Oh, ok so from bass side to treble side (thats how I usually read it): FCGDA, right? So it's like a GDAE mandolin with a high A string, only the mandolin part, or top four strings are tuned down a step.
Mike Black
Nov-13-2009, 3:21pm
I've thought about putting one in the guitar bodied octave mandolins that I'm building. I'll probably put one in the one that I'm making now. I've always thought that the Virzi sounded the best in oval holed instruments. The largest Virzi I've seen was in a 1924 K4 Mandocello (http://www.mandolinarchive.com/perl/show_mando.pl?2528).
acruzn
Nov-16-2009, 5:39am
The OM in the pic got lost in the mail (Czech republic mail system...scary!) when he was sending it back to me after repairs. I have a new one due in a couple weeks.
Gerry,
sorry to hear about your Czech OM, bummer!
now for the real question - what is a virzi, what does it look like and what does it basically do? am i right that it looks like a disc?
from the little research i have done, it sure stirs up emotion!?
Gerry Cassidy
Nov-16-2009, 5:51am
Angel,
Yeah it's a bummer it has been lost. No one knows where it is. Roman has said he has had shipments lost...then show up 4 months later. I have a new one on the way, so if that happens it will be interesting! :-)
Here is a pic I stole from the Gail Hester build thread going on right now in the "Post a Picture" forum. It's a great shot of a virzi.
Thomaston
Nov-16-2009, 11:03pm
I'm not sure I completely understand what this is supposed to do to the sound. I have a friend about to build me a Don Kawalek octave mandolin for Irish accompaniment. Should this addition be something to consider?
Mike Black
Nov-17-2009, 2:13pm
I'm not sure I completely understand what this is supposed to do to the sound. I have a friend about to build me a Don Kawalek octave mandolin for Irish accompaniment. Should this addition be something to consider?
Maybe, maybe not. That's for you to decide. There are several threads here on the cafe about the Virzi (http://www.mandolincafe.com/glossary/glossary_14.shtml). Take a search.
Goodin
Nov-17-2009, 7:05pm
do a search for "virzi tone producer" online or hear in the threads and you will find all the information you want and more. Some experts on it that frequent the cafe are Dan B., Gail H., and Roger Siminoff...maybe one of them will chime in. Here is a link to Roger Siminoff's write up about it:
http://www.siminoff.net/pages/virzi.htm
Basically Loar adapted the Virzi to mandolin from the Virzi brother who used them in their violins. From what I have heard they seem to even out and warm up the tone. There is much debate on their benefit but I happen to like the tone. To me it makes a mandolin more pleasing to the ear, not so harsh.
I would love to hear some sound clips of a virzi in a CBOM!
Goodin
Nov-17-2009, 7:09pm
Thomaston I am considering a Virzi in my cittern build (if my builder is up for it!), which is why I started the thread. I really like the tone of my 1924 Gibson F-2 w/ Virzi, so it makes me curious how a virzi would sound in a CBOM.
Keith Erickson
Nov-19-2009, 12:27pm
Didn't some of the Loar Mandocello's also have the Virzi?
Mike Black
Nov-19-2009, 2:24pm
Didn't some of the Loar Mandocello's also have the Virzi?
Yep! All six of the Loar K5 Mandocello's have a Virzi.
violmando
May-10-2010, 10:41am
Was Loar's mandoviola the only one built? I would love to have a 10 vintage Gibson 10 string, although I imagine it's a big one to play....Yvonne
sgarrity
May-10-2010, 1:31pm
Was Loar's mandoviola the only one built? I would love to have a 10 vintage Gibson 10 string, although I imagine it's a big one to play....Yvonne
I seem to remember a few years back that pics of another one surfaced, an oval hole I believe. Was it for sale on ebay? Or did Charles Johnson have it?? I can't remember. someone around here will know. But as I recall, it was thought to have been original from the factory. Certainly a custom order and it was never part of their catalog.
Eddie Sheehy
May-11-2010, 10:22am
There's a Rozawood OM in the Classifieds with a Virzi...
NFI.