What instrument is this?

[hendrix2]

Not mine, but someone on a dutch guitar message board bought an instrument that looks like a bouzouki but I guess it's not a bouzouki.
Notice the 'extra' frets between the first and second fret and between the third and fourth fret.
The person who sold it told it was something mexican.

http://www.em11.nl/images/instrument_totaal.jpg

http://www.em11.nl/images/instrument_frets_klein.jpg

http://www.em11.nl/images/kast_zijkant_klein.jpg

thanks,
kenneth

[John Rosett]

Looks like a Greek Bouzouki with maybe a couple of added frets.

[Jim Garber]

I agree with mandorose. I think that the owner of this bouzouki decided to do some customization including an automotive sparkle-like finish on the bowl.

[Givson]

The instrument is definitely a Greek bouzouki.

What is the stenciled design on the top? Looks like a couple of squirrels (or weasels).

[Willie Poole]

Something I have often wondered, a dulcimer doesn`t have any sharps or flats so who decided to place frets between the whole notes on stringed instruments? If placing a fret between the ones that now exsist what would the note be called? A "sharp flat"? Since there now isn`t any B sharp placing a fret there then there would be one..Silly ain`t it?....Willie

[Jkf_Alone]

maybe the original owner wanted to be able to play in scales not based on western systems.

[foldedpath]

Something I have often wondered, a dulcimer doesn`t have any sharps or flats so who decided to place frets between the whole notes on stringed instruments? If placing a fret between the ones that now exsist what would the note be called? A "sharp flat"? Since there now isn`t any B sharp placing a fret there then there would be one..Silly ain`t it?....Willie

Well, there's a bunch of "bent notes" in between the official ones. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Blues guitar players will bend a string slightly sharp or flat sometimes. Slide guitar players do that too. I guess the difference is they don't land on one of those intermediate frequencies and stay there for very long, or the ear (a Western ear anyway) wouldn't accept it.

[Jkf_Alone]

you could probably use them to add a sort of vibrato effect on those notes.

[Rick Lindstrom]

I'm not an expert by any means, but some musical traditions use "quarter tone" scales, and that's what those extra frets are probably intended to provide.

Wouldn't sound "right " to us since we're used to scales with intervals no smaller than a half tone, but I'm sure it sounds completely normal to folks who are used to it in their music.

Rick

[LaurentB]

The instrument is definitely a Greek bouzouki.

What is the stenciled design on the top? Looks like a couple of squirrels (or weasels).
Hi, I'm Laurent, the guy on behalf of whom Hendrix2 posted the pictures from on this forum.
Indeed I wondered which animals those painted on the top are supposed to be as well http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

I already ordered some bouzouki strings, I'm very curious about how it will sound!

[allenhopkins]

Since there now isn`t any B sharp placing a fret there then there would be one..
"B sharp" is C natural. The Western 12-tone scale has two "half step" intervals in an octave; in the C scale the half steps are between E and F (mi/fa) and B and C (ti/do).

Lots of Middle Eastern music uses "quarter steps" or notes that would fall between the frets on our Euro-Western scale. Instruments from that region often have movable frets to accommodate these pitches. Since the instrument in question appears to be a Greek bouzouki, perhaps the owner wanted to play other types of music from the eastern Mediterranean, and installed the "extra" frets so he/she could.

[bolannta]

Ale Möller uses quarter-tone frets.

http://www.beanblossom.in.us/levi/lotuspics/Frifot/images/4-Ale%20Moller.jpg

[JEStanek]

I think it looks like a dragon or hydra or maybe the Scylla. It's a greek zouk after all. The sound hole could be the Charybdis whirlpool... the odd frets... being caught between a rock and a hard place.

OK I'm a geek. I admit it.

Jamie

[mandocrucian]

Ale Möller ranks way up there with people like Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Martin Carthy and Davey Graham.

In addition to the quarter-tone frets, his instrument has "pinpoint capos", something he devised to capo one string at a time, giving himself various "tunings" without having to retune the instrument. Notice also the low string neck extension, but the next to bottom-string is also extended, but not as much.

Also, some of quarter-tone frets are only beneath a couple of strings, they don't extend across the full width of the neck.

Möller has recorded in the groups Frifot, Nordan Project, and in duo with fiddler Aly Bain. #Also solo stuff. On one of his earlier albums Bouzoukispellman he took a couple of Simon & Garfunkel songs ("Feelin' Groovy", "Mrs. Robinson") and changed the meter and turned them into polskas - [i]"Polska efter Paul Simon". #(and that ain't no "polka")

Niles H

[LaurentB]

I just discovered that those extra frets have indeed been added later, I can see the glue used for it.

[Klondike Waldo]

Since there now isn`t any B sharp placing a fret there then there would be one..
"B sharp" is C natural. The Western 12-tone scale has two "half step" intervals in an octave; in the C scale the half steps are between E and F (mi/fa) and B and C (ti/do).

KW:
The 12 note Western Scale has 12 half steps to the octave. I believe you meant to say that the Major scale has two half steps in the octave- mi-fa and ti-do.

FWIW, this is also true of the natural minor scale as well as dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian and locrian modes, as all contain the same notes in the same order as the major sale, but with a different starting/ending point.

[LaurentB]

Very true. Meanwhile, those extra frets are quite confusing when you're not used to it. Anyway, haven't played it much yet because I broke two strings while tuning and detuning the strings for adjusting the saddle height.
First impressions are that it sounds quite nice though.