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Just finished my 3rd guitar bouzouki - this one is a commission which is nice. The owner is a talented bhodran player that wants to learn a "proper" instrument and he will be picking it up this weekend.

It's Euro Spruce/Indian Rosewood (one of Shane's lovely sets), with curly koa bindings. The neck is sapele (first one of these I've done) with London plane heel, EIR front and back headstock veneer, ebony fretboard bound with curly koa and Gotoh mini tuners with ebony buttons. End graft and bridge are Kingwood. It's a 16 fret body join, with 25.6" scale length, 16" lower bout and 4 7/8" maximum depth and side soundport.

The strings have only been on for a few hours and it has plenty of opening up to do but sounds pretty good already. Here's a soundclip of me playing accompaniment and melody (not at the same time ) on Jim Ward's Jig (an arrangement I learnt from James Fagan). Tuning is GDAD and there is a tiny amount of reverb added:

Jim Ward's Jig

Now some pics:













Thanks for looking and listening.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave Dave Dave



That is one cool looking bouzouki. I love the shape, and I have to say once again that all you designs are most excellent and refreshing.

I love your playing as you know and the added tune is great. Thanks.

I guess that makes it an instrument eh Colin . Just teasing you bud

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

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Very cool looking!
And great sound too!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Beautiful instrument and sound. Thanks for posting, Dave!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

gorgeous!!

come on, technical stuff, whats the scale length, nut & saddle width & things?

string gauges all that stuff!!

And it sounds great too

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

WOW, that is a beautiful, beautiful instrument!!!! The gleam of the koa bindings, the shape, the SOUND!!!
Very refreshing and original design

Rod,

Glad you like it and my playing. I recorded the accompaniment first and it's a little too fast for my flatpicking ability but I like a challenge

Peter&JJ,

Thanks

Sam,

Thank you. It's not that orinial though as it is pretty much based on the guitar-bouzouki that Stefan Sobell made for Andy Irvine back in the 1970's. Bealtine is basically a scaled down version. The 16 frets clear gives great playing access. Looking forward to hearing your guitar-cittern.

Martin,

Scale length is 25.6". The customer wanted a narrowish neck and this is 40mm at the nut and 54mm at the saddle. The string gauges I use and recommend are 0.012", 0.016",0.032" and 0.042" in unison pairs. Cheapest way is to buy bulk sets of D'Addario EJ 16's and use 2 sets (minus the 0.024" and 0.053" strings - if you have a design of an instrument that uses these two string gauges only let me know )

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

That is outstanding. The talent that hangs around this forum is unbelievable. I can only hope someday to be half as good.

Peter

Dave;

I plan to get a recording up either before my Dad comes up to stay for the weekend (copious country pub dinners and sight seeing in my beautiful county, so I can't play with my toys for a few days) or in a week's time.

What can I say Maestro, right up there with your usual standards, always making something slightly different. Just got to make me one of those. We play a lot of Irish music so it would make sense.

I like the nice subtle wood choices, all from the same pallete, so they are very harmonious. I particularly like the use of the London Plane for the heel, nice touch.

Does it have the adjustable neck Dave?

Do they have that joke like they do with drummers? "What do you call a man who hangs around with Irish musicians?" "A bhodran player!" Better not ask him.

The playing has been saved to my Dave White folder. I'm going to try and get Penny to overdub it with the pipes (I know Northumbrian are the wrong ones) and see what it sounds like.

Great stuff as usual.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Very nice instrument Dave! I always look forward to seeing what you'll do next. Always something fun!   And, posting them with a sound clip is an added treat. This one sounds great as always. Thanks!

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Dave, you're quite a talented man. I love your playing and your craftsmanship. Superb.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Dave! Another fabulous 'zouk from you, refreshing as always! Your instruments are easy to recognize and it is fun to see how your style develops from instrument to instrument. For instance, that headstock is sort of odd, but very cool at the same time.

I have no sound on this computer, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I can listen to it (at work!).

A 40 mm nut is narrowish? The one I posted here a while back had a 36 mm nut and I have seen Irish bouzoukis with nuts at about 32mm.   I guess it depends on your playing style, but I imagine some finger stretches would become hard to do if the nut was much wider than 40 mm (but then I don't really play this instrument so what do I know).

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Dave, that's a beauty! I love the sound of it!!!

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Now that's my kind of music! Wow!

Beautiful instrument and one great full sound!

Love it!

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

Dave, that's another wonderful zook.
You certainly have a unique, recognizable style hammered out. Meaning I like the looks of those De Faoite instruments, and yours look almost as good!   

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Man what a beautiful instrument!

A few years ago, I went to Venezuela and one of the guys that I met had a similar instrument that he called a "quatro". I was impressed with the sound then and I am impressed with the sound of yours also.

Outstanding sound and looks!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Peter - Thanks. With all of the fabulous knowledge and examples that get posted here I'm sure that you will end up making fantastic instruments.

Todd,

Thanks. Curly Koa is becoming my favourite binding.

Colin,

Thanks. These instruments are great fun and really take your guitar playing to lots of interesting places - and vice versa. This one hasn't got an adjustable neck but it does have the CF braces and free floating fingerboard. I have done one guitar-bouzouki with one - the adjustable necks are still in their "observation" stages to see how they perform over a longer time scale. I'd love to hear what Penny does with the pipes on Jim Ward's Jig.

Ron, Steve, Mike, Michael and Ken - thanks

Arnt,

Thanks. I came up with the headstock shape when I made the guitar-cittern and was trying to get as straight a run as possible on the 10 strings. It's grown on me and I now use it for all my instruments. On nut width it all depends on if you are coming to these instruments as a guitar player or mandolin/mandola player 40mm is I think what was used on Andy Irvine's original instrument. The stretches aren't that bad - that's why I use GDAD and not GDAE - and the solution is not to overcomplicate things and choose voicings that let the open strings ring.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Hesh,

Thanks - I don't think it would fly as well as a Jetsons one

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Great looking AND sounding Zook Dave!
With a 16" width on the lower bout & 4 7/8 depth, that baby is a monster! Those are the dimensions I use on my jumbo guitars.
Can you pass along the string guages that you use?
Thanks for posting yet another beautiful instrument.
Dan

Late to the party, but that is one fine sounding and looking instrument.  The tone is outstanding.  Nice deep, throaty sound.  The playing ain't too shabby either.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hi Dave,

it looks great- your stuff has definitely improved a lot since the first few I saw!

Bet it sounds incredible!

Warmest regards,
Terence