Official Luthiers Forum!

I posted a few pics of this when it was finished on the "what have you been up to" thread a couple weeks back but now I have a sound clip.

The piece is called "Musical Moment" by Hryhory Kytasty and played by a good friend of mine, Yuri Petlura.

Musical Moment

Over all, I'm very pleased with the instrument. A few folks thought the bass was too much but I'm not one of them. Most importantly, Yuri is my first customer and he said it was the best instrument he'd ever played on.

I also have a file of a duet he and I played on two of my instruments I can post if anyone's interested.

Comments are welcome.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

What a lovely sound!
Sounds very balanced, good projection to my ear, but I have no experience of what looks to be a fine type of instrument.
Well done, you must be very pleased with it.
Best of luck with your next!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

That is just awesome sounding Andy !!! I love the tune to, sounds a bit russian ?
how are these instruments structured ? X braced ? etc...

Andy, please post the duet !!!!
I had my whole family listen to the song, we all love it, just amazing.


Lars

Thanks Lars.

The song is written by a Ukrainian composer so I can see why you think it has a Russian sound to it - no offense taken of course

Here's the duet: Dueling Banduras

I've attached a pic of us playing it - well kind of - this was for a little "instructor's talent show" but I made too many flubs during that performance so we re-recorded it right afterward. Even then, I made several flubs but it still gets the point across. I'm playing on my #4 which is a different style of instrument. I think they sound good together though.

One final thing on the recordings - the first number is just the raw file normalized, no comp, EQ or anything like that, recorded close in with a Zoom H4n. The second file has a touch of comp on it and that's it. The room where we recorded has a nice sound.

I have all of the construction details on my blog: http://banduramaker.blogspot.com I have to say a big "thank you" to the whole luthier community by the way as many have been very open on sharing opinions and helping me out. There's a lot of guitar in these banduras.

I would love to X-brace these to see how they would sound but unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to do that using the construction I have.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Congratulations Andy!! Great looking and great sounding instrument. You are well on your way now and each one appears to be getting better. I really liked both of the sound clips... thanks for including the links.

Keep up the good work! Will the next one have the adjustable flip-tuners?

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Peter

great job andy!
sounds balanced enough to me!
must have been scary to string that up, and expensive.

Man, you don't know the half of it. I put D'Addario EXPs on the main row of the instrument I'm playing on - cost me like $75 - for half of the wound strings! Anyone know of a good wholesaler? Side question - do 80/20's last longer than regular PB's?

Pete - Yep, the next one will have the re-tuners on it. Wish me luck!

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Andy that is just such a captivating sound. Sort of a cross between a harp and a piano. You must be very pleased with that. By the way how many hours did you pour into that?

Regards

Craig

Thanks Craig,

I don't keep close track of hours but I usually tell people about 100 to 150 hours, probably closer to the 150 mark.

I don't know if you know, but let it be known that there is a pretty decent sized Ukrainian/bandura community in Australia. In fact, there's a guy who lives in Toronto now, originally from Australia who sort of upped everyone's game here in NA technique wise.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Thank you Andy...beautiful unique sound, very full, quite lovely indeed.


Blessings
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Geez andy, hate to break it to you but your guitar's neck is on crooked & you have WAY too many strings on it ... O.o ...

better luck next time!!!

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If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey

Very Nice Andy! They sound real good together and very balanced great job and thanks for posting.

Captivating! Thanks for posting the recording Andy, I really enjoyed the piece and love the tone and musicality of your instrument!

Keep up the great work!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Congrats to your instrument and the comment about it from the owner! Thanks for the clip...it sounded beautiful!

Love the music. Nice pics on the blog. Now we just need to get you hooked up with the Documentary Channel. This would make a great show.

Andy, wow, that is a real revelation. I always wondered what these sounded like. It's a really expansive sound - I thought immediately of a harpsichord, but then it seems deeper and more pianistic.

Wow!

Thanks for that.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Me too, Andy! That was really,........ well............................. what they said!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks for the compliments guys and thanks to Duh Padma ( ) for bumping this thread back up!

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

absolutely lovely. Congratulations.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Another great Job Andy I love the sound of the Bandura and your playing. Way too many strings for my brain.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Nicely done .. you dont get a feel for how big the box is until you see someone holding it .. I imagined it to be smaller.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"