TijnBerends
Sep-17-2013, 4:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMpCoNPZy-g
Here's a short video of an instrument I made almost two years ago. It's a bouzouki with a (more or less) guitar-shaped body, based on Graham McDonald's "Type II Bouzouki". The top has a very strong curve and recurve, based on the Howe-Orme design (which I came across in Nigel Forster's lovely book "Between the Ideal and the Possible".
Some people may remember the posts I made during the building process, and a last post mentioning that the instrument broke down. It turned out that I had made a (beginner's) mistake, and instead of making a small indent in the back to make room for the top, I'd made an indent in the top to make room for the neck. This weakened the top, and about three weeks after I strung it up, two cracks appeared in the top, just next to the beck.
I did manage to repair it though. I removed the back, and glued a 20cm wide plywood brace to the inside of the top and the neck, making the connection between them much stronger. I glued the back on again, replaced the bindings, and re-sanded and coated the whole thing.
Although I expect that it can handle steel strings without problems now, I decided to try something new and put nylon on it. I already have two steel-string bouzoukis, and I figured that the warm sound of this instrument's cedar top and wooden bridge would go very well with nylon. As it turns out it does, as you can hear from this video.
Comments are welcome:)
Here's a short video of an instrument I made almost two years ago. It's a bouzouki with a (more or less) guitar-shaped body, based on Graham McDonald's "Type II Bouzouki". The top has a very strong curve and recurve, based on the Howe-Orme design (which I came across in Nigel Forster's lovely book "Between the Ideal and the Possible".
Some people may remember the posts I made during the building process, and a last post mentioning that the instrument broke down. It turned out that I had made a (beginner's) mistake, and instead of making a small indent in the back to make room for the top, I'd made an indent in the top to make room for the neck. This weakened the top, and about three weeks after I strung it up, two cracks appeared in the top, just next to the beck.
I did manage to repair it though. I removed the back, and glued a 20cm wide plywood brace to the inside of the top and the neck, making the connection between them much stronger. I glued the back on again, replaced the bindings, and re-sanded and coated the whole thing.
Although I expect that it can handle steel strings without problems now, I decided to try something new and put nylon on it. I already have two steel-string bouzoukis, and I figured that the warm sound of this instrument's cedar top and wooden bridge would go very well with nylon. As it turns out it does, as you can hear from this video.
Comments are welcome:)