Fylde octavius zouk

[Steve L]

If you're in the Boston area, this 2005 zouk is there for sale and it plays like a dream. #It looked to be in pristine condition and sounded wonderful. #Scale length was good for melody and chords. #The fretboard was #pretty wide...I liked it, but others may not. Not as neck heavy as most zouks and a light natural finish. Pin bridge and zero fret. #Beautiful workmanship. Not many chances to see and play good quality CBOM instruments in the stores.

No financial interest except I'd like someone to buy it before I go and do something stupid with my credit card! they're asking $1595.

[Martin Jonas]

Interesting to compare prices in the UK and the US on these: in the UK, you can get the Fylde Octavius new for around £800, which is at current exchange rates pretty exactly the same as the asking price on this used one. For comparison, a Trinity College zouk costs £375, which is at the moment $750. I believe they are rather a lot cheaper in the US. So, the differential between a Fylde and a TC is muchsteeper in the US than in the UK.

Martin


Martin

[Steve L]

Interesting, Martin. Street price on a Trinity College is usually about $450 plus shipping in the US. Good zouks are hard to find in US music stores so they can command pretty high prices when a nice piece comes in. A friend of mine told me they had a Crump a couple of months ago but I didn't get over there in time to play it before it sold. I just got a tenor banjo so I won't be buying anything for a while.

[steve V. johnson]

I had a Fylde Octavius a while back and while it wasn't what I wanted, it was a load of fun and a noble instrument. Fyldes are a great investment, IMO. A pal of mine has one of the Touchstone cedar/mahogany OMs and it's a gem.

In my experience, Fyldes are all too rare in the US, so prices are sort of unpredictable. Of course, music shops will do the research and the math...

BTW, the Fylde website has been completely changed around, and is really spiffy now. They must have gotten some good guitar orders since John Doyle has been touring with his... <GGG>

stv

Did you ever try unison strings on said fylde?
I was thinking of converting mine.
DD

[Steve L]

I know a woman who has unison courses on the only other Fylde I've ever played. #It sounds great. The Boys of the Lough came through here about 4 years ago and their guitar player had a Fylde. It was a fabulous sounding guitar.

[Mandobar]

they had a john allison octave there around xmas time also. nice sounding octave at a very attractive price.

hey, steve, did you play the brentrup 23v they have there?

I think I will string er up in unison but god knows what Roger Bucknall will do to me if he ever finds out!!

[PseudoCelt]

I played an Octavius bouzouki at the Fylde workshop. I ended up going home with one of their archtops, but I thought the Octavius sounded really nice, though perhaps a little quiet. I imagine for accompanying singing, or playing in small groups, it would be ideal.

Andy Irvine used to have a couple of these, before he got his Sobell. You can't really ask for a better recommendation than that. He's also got a Fylde guitar-bodied bouzouki, with octave tuning (played on Baneasa's Green Glade on Rain on the Roof).

Patrick

Yes, I have seen Andy playing a couple of times, in fact we even played before him at the 'folk club' once, scary. I think he retired to the bar.
Anyway, I know he liked his octavious a lot but has commented that the octave strings 'got on his nerves' after a while.
I've stuck with the octaves for about 10 yrs now but i think a change is in order and I think it may increase the volume somewhat?
DD

[PseudoCelt]

I knew AI wasn't keen on octave tuning, but I'd assumed he had his Fyldes tuned in unison.

I've always strung my Fylde in octaves, mainly because that's the way it came and I've never got round to changing the nut slots. I do like the jangliness of octave tuning, especially for chords, but I'd like to have the option of unisons.

Patrick

[Steve L]

Mary, no I didn't play anything else besides the Fylde. I just popped in to get strings for my "new" 1923 Weyman banjo that I really couldn't afford and was in a hurry to get home. I don't like to put myself in the path of temptation too much in one day. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

PseudoCelt,
Andy Irvine uses unisons on all his other zouks but not on the octavious (if he still has it).
My main man Uncle Choppy rightly pointed out that the scale length of the fylde is not to dissimilar to that of an o/m and I recon unisons will suit the tune playing side of things (especially avec capo)
I am getting more and more into the blusgrass way of playing and again unison strings etcetc blahblahblah....
I will now procede to 'bore off' and annoy my wife by continuously playing my mandolin.

[steve V. johnson]

The Octavius I had came to me in unison stringing but the nut and bridge had been cut for octaves. I switched it back to octaves, just to find out what it was like, but the intonation was... challenged... <GG> The previous owner had done some experiments on the nut slots... So that meant, to me, that since I had to do nut and intonation work on it anyway, it could go either way.

I wrote to Roger Bucknall and he was very, very courteous and most helpful. He gave me lots of setup information and string gauge information and options, and I chose to use unisons. He didn't have any reservations about that at all, btw.

In comparison to larger, carved OMs/zouks, the Octavius was a little less loud. Its sound was also just a tad more guitar-like, with more overtones, due I think to the pin bridge. As I recall, the Octavius' scale length was 21 7/8", essentially 22" with a zero-fret. The fretboard was pretty much the same width all the way down to the body joint, without much taper, which I found interesting.

A friend of mine in Ireland has an archtop Fylde OM, and it's in unisons and gorgeous.

The ex-my Octavius now lives in Nebraska and I get to see it about once a year if it's new player can make it to the St. Louis Tionol.

stv

[Rick C.]

I have my Octavius strung in unisons, and it's not as loud as some 'zooks, but I like mine. I wouldn't say it's much of a session animal, but the tone and sustain are great for small sessions and band settings. #What's interesting is that it doesn't seem to lose much volume when the strings start to die, it just doesn't sustain quite and much and loses some of the jangle. #But I haven't had intonation problems up the neck with the unison tuning.

I emailed Andy Irvine a while back asking about the string guages he used on his, and I don't recall the guages offhand, but they were a bit lighter than mine (.044/.032/.020w/.012). #So with phosphor bronze wound the tone is a bit more "brash" than his old recordings, but it still sounds to me to have a fuller tone than say, a Foley. #I use a Clayton triangle .56, and I like the attack and tone I get with that, though I'm not a thrasher. #Andy did advise me my strings were too heavy and that I need to find another way to keep them from buzzing, but the only guy here locally I'd trust to do a setup on it didn't improve it much and I went back to the old guages. #I do recall Andy used an .018w, and those aren't easy to find.

The Fishman Natural 1 actually sounds pretty good in the Fylde, though I prefer to mic it when I can get away with it (and the sound guy has a clue).


# # #Rick

Thats really interesting about the Irvine string gauges and whatnot.
I had a look on the Fylde website and from what i can gather the octavious normaly uses .010/.016/.028ish & .048(with relative octave strings of course.
What they seemed to sugest for unison is that you keep .010&.016 the same but reduce the heavier strings to .026&.046.
Seems about right, I will give them a go!
PS: I have tried the wound A thing but they ALWAYS seem to snap at inopportune moments.

[steve V. johnson]

I used to buy Ernie Ball single guitar strings from my favorite local guitar shop for the Octavius, and I've used wound .020s forever. The Ernie Balls, (both phosphor bronze and the 80/20 bronze) broke -once in a while- but not often.

I've switched to the singles from JustStrings.com in phosphor bronze and they are much better.

I think I used .014. .020w, .032, .042 on it. This was one of those instruments that had bigger, tighter bass with smaller strings than with larger ones.

stv

[Rick C.]

I should point out the string guages I listed are what I've been using, not what he suggested. I had that email on a former PC that crashed and took everything with it.
Interesting that stv's strings are pretty close to mine.

Andy did mention that it was common for the Octavius' actions to be set too low from the factory and that if I could get someone to cut a bone nut for it and saddle piece it would improve the tone. He also said it took several adjustments to get his where he wanted it, and that he had not played one in many years (we all knew that anyway).

I've not had any problems with the .020w breaking on my Fylde at all. Just luck, maybe!


Rick