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Another 8-string
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=11694		 Page 1 of 3
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:57 pm ]
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Here is a guitar bouzouki I just finished. Wish I could play it, it seems to sound pretty good!

Italian top, EIR back and sides, ebony appointments. Simple snakewood rosette. Nitro finish.

The pictures are not perfect, especially the pictures of the top fail to show the beautiful grain in this wood. Oh well, here we go.



Front:







Another one:







The back:







Headstock (oops, I guess could have done a better job of cleaning the dust...):










Rosette:







Bridge:







Some heel shots:










And lastly a very dusty one of the butt wedge (!)








Thanks for looking!
Author:  peterm [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:10 pm ]
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AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


great detail...
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:22 pm ]
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Man that's great.  What is the size?  Is the sound a lot deeper/more mellow than a regular bouzouki?  Very nice detail work.
Author:  AStass [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:31 pm ]
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Arnt, that is beautiful! The rosette is perfect. I wish I could play it !   Great job. I can't believe the quality I see on this OLF. It scares me a little! Alan.
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:36 pm ]
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Arnt,

That's great. I like everything about it!
Those miters look perfect.

Steve
Author:  Jim68 [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:42 pm ]
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Wow! Beautiful work! Loved the curvature of the bridge.


Jim


 
Author:  RobertJeffery [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:07 pm ]
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As Jim Said:

WOW!
Author:  CarltonM [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:15 pm ]
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That's another winner, Arnt. Beautiful! Its new owner is going to smile until his cheeks hurt.




Psst! It's an "end graft"!
Author:  old man [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:17 pm ]
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Dang, Arnt, you are good. That is such a beautiful instrument and the detail work is amazing. Maybe if I lived in Norway, hmmmm.

What kind of scale does it have, Arnt?


8 strings, I've been thinking of taking three or four strings off of my guitars.

Ron
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:20 pm ]
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Now there's an idea.  That would improve my playing skills considerably.
Author:  Lars Rasmussen [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:12 pm ]
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Wow Arnt... thats really good. I guess we have to have that Scandinavian OLF-thing soon...

I love everyting about it, the shape, the details look outstanding and so does the finishing job.

Who is getting it?
Author:  Sam Price [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:33 pm ]
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Arnt, that is INCREDIBLY beautiful!!!

It really reminds me of the Avalon Legacy range guitars....

So, is that body size a regular guitar size, or smaller/narrower?

Man, I wanna hear some soundclips!!

Author:  Dave White [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:47 pm ]
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Arnt,

Very elegant and lovely workmanship

Time to make one for yourself - just like a mandolin on steroids really
Author:  J.L.K. Vesa [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:56 pm ]
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Wow!

Very nice instrument and super clean workmanship!

Well done!

Author:  Arnt Rian [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:48 pm ]
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Thanks everybody!

Waddy, yes the idea was to get a deeper, richer sound than the owner's other bouzouki's, which are traditional Irish type instruments. He wanted a more guitar like sound, and I think we have achieved that (surprise; it is built like a guitar!).

Calton, I know; I saw you mention this in another thread but I found it funny, and being the immature clown that I am...

Old man, the scale is 25,4".

Lars, the instrument was commissioned by Andreas Aase, who is very good, professional local player. Among other things he plays in a duo where the other guy plays a Hardanger fiddle, and this instrument will be used in that setting at least. With the Irish bouzouki they were getting a little "treble heavy", this instrument will hopefully fill in a bit more on the other end. We shall see.

Sam, the instrument is approximately 390 x 500 mm. I used my SJ mold, but I shimmed the lower bouts a bit to narrow that part in about 10 mm. Why? Dunno, felt like a good idea at the time. Hopefully Andreas will put some sound clips up on his web site!

Dave, yeah I know. I play the mandolin of course, so I can find may way around the fretboard on this one as well, but man! You have to really stretch out, so the normal mando chords are very difficult to do. I love the way the chords sound though, this thing sustains! I put 2 carbon rods in the neck along the hot rod, so the neck feels very solid which probably contributes to that as well. I was concerned that the narrow neck would be flimsy, but the carbon seems to have taken care of that.

Thanks again for all the nice words guys, I'm blushing over here!
Author:  Dave White [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:21 pm ]
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[QUOTE=Arnt]
Dave, yeah I know. I play the mandolin of course, so I can find may way around the fretboard on this one as well, but man! You have to really stretch out, so the normal mando chords are very difficult to do. I love the way the chords sound though, this thing sustains! I put 2 carbon rods in the neck along the hot rod, so the neck feels very solid which probably contributes to that as well. I was concerned that the narrow neck would be flimsy, but the carbon seems to have taken care of that.

[/QUOTE]

Arnt,

I made my first one two and a half years ago and it joins the body at the 16th fret. The neck is rock solid. If you are playing in GDAE the chords will be a bit stretchy, GDAD sits much better. I have e-mailed you a word document that has GDAD chords from a workshop with James Fagan plus a few of my own variations.
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:40 pm ]
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Thanks Dave! I'm delivering the instrument at luch today so I won't have much time to try it out, but as you say I will have to build one for myself too. These are fun instruments!
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:42 pm ]
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[QUOTE=Arnt] Thanks Dave! I'm delivering the instrument at luch today so I won't have much time to try it out, but as you say I will have to build one for myself too. These are fun instruments![/QUOTE]

"...at luch..." ?!!! That was supposed to be lunch, darn edit button...
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:02 pm ]
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I just realized I didn't put up any photos of the whole thing, so here are a couple of more.

Front:






Back:

Author:  Bruce Dickey [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:55 pm ]
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Excellent work Arnt. Looks like it was built by an architect.
Author:  Matt Gage [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:00 pm ]
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great job Arnt.... congrats.
Author:  Todd Rose [ Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:48 pm ]
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Arnt, that's one gorgeous, elegant instrument! Love it. Thanks for the inspiration!

So, the scale length is 25.4". Is it tuned GDAE as Dave mentioned? What string gauges did you use?
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:05 am ]
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Actually this instrument is tuned FCGD low to high, in other words one whole step down from the most common tuning, which Dave mentions. This was the players choice; according to him this works really well with the Hardanger fiddle. The strings pairs are .042/.032/.017/.012, which gives a total string pull of 68.12 kg in this tuning. On a guitar with the same scale tuned to concert pitch the stings will pull 73.51 kg with light strings and 79.42 kg with medium strings, so that was my starting point when I considered the bracing and top dimensions.

One problem I see is that the G stings (.017) are a bit slack, so we may go up to .024 on those and see how that works. Intonation can be hard to get right if the unwound strings are too slack. The .017 strings in his tuning only pull 7.32 kg each.
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:12 am ]
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Here is the string calculatoer I used

The McDonald Patent Universal String Tension Calculator
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